


Tumblr Prompt Fills

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Category: Supernatural, Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: M/M, Tagged by chapter
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-13
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-02-14 04:58:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 103
Words: 47,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13000356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: Fics created as fills for prompts fromhere.Send prompts! <3





	1. Index

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Phayte](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phayte/gifts).



2\. Yuri/Seung Gil - “Why would you think something like that?”  
3\. Wincestiel - “Stop yelling and listen for a second.”  
4\. YuuYu - “Why didn’t you tell me? I thought you trusted me.”  
5\. Vikturio - “I guess time flies when you’re with somebody you love.”  
6\. Yuuri/Toshiya - “I thought maybe we can do a little more than just kissing.”  
7\. Wincest - "Who did this? Who hurt you?  
8\. Phiciaociao - “You look really cute in that.”  
9\. Wincest - "What you did was stupid and dangerous and scared the hell out of me!"  
10\. Wincest - "I always want to kiss you."  
11\. Sastiel - “I wish I didn’t have these feelings, but I do.”  
12\. Wincest - “I like it when you say my name like that.”  
13\. Phiciaociao - HAPPY BIRTHDAY PHAYTE  
14\. Wincest - "Nothing good ever happens past midnight."  
15\. Sastiel - "I hope you know my name is actually Sam."  
16\. Wincest - “Why should we date?” “Because we are attracted to each other.” “I am attracted to pie, but I do not feel the need to date pie.”  
17\. Wincest - "Someone's cranky." "Someone needs to shut up."  
18\. Wincest - “I already know that I’m going to hell. At this point it’s really go big or go home.”  
19\. Russian Skate Fam - "Do I get bonus points if I act like I care?"  
20\. Sam & Jack - "I just feel safe with you. Like nothing bad can happen.  
21\. Sam/Chuck - "I'm sorry that I got way too into playing house and accidentally kissed you passionately.”  
22\. Wincest - “What do you mean alcohol isn’t an appropriate coping mechanism’? It’s working.”  
23\. Wincest - "I need therapy after this."  
24\. Dean & Sam: "A little gasoline... blowtorch... no problem."  
25\. Sam: "Everybody keeps telling me you're the bad guy."  
26\. Sastiel: “Is there a reason you’re naked in my bed?”  
27\. Dean & Jack: "You're a dork, just like your father."  
28\. Viktor & Phichit: "You fell asleep in the tub?!"  
29\. Casabriel: “It’s amazing how fast the world can go from bad to total shit storm.”  
30\. YuYuu: “I was meant to only come to Earth to get information about humans so my race could figure out how to dominate the planet but I think I’m falling in love with my test subject, shit.”  
31\. Sastiel featuring Meg: "He's a bad kisser."  
32\. Casabriel: "How long have you been standing there?  
33\. Sastiel: "I just like proving you wrong."  
34\. Dean & Sam: “You haven’t even touched your food. What’s going on?”  
35\. Wincestiel: "Don't touch me. We're fighting."  
36\. Sastiel: “Why do you only kiss me when I’m sleeping?"  
37\. Wincestiel: "I find that answer vague and unconvincing."  
38\. Sastiel: Don’t tell me not to worry, because I’m going to do that anyway.”  
39\. Swesson: Accidentally Witnessed kiss  
40\. Casson: Kiss in a dream  
41\. Casson: Kiss under a full moon  
42\. Leoji: “I wish he/she was as talented on the ice as he/she is with the cello...”  
43\. MIla & Sara: Bet  
44\. Georgi/Mila/Minami: Soulmate Hair  
45\. Otayuri: Scar/Flower Tattoo Soulmate AU  
46\. Minami: His Dark Past (tags: child abuse, attempted suicide)  
47\. Sastiel: Roommate AU + Fake Married  
48\. Michemil: What Do You Mean Our Kid's Not Us?  
49\. Sastiel: One's a Musician  
50\. Sastiel: One's a YouTuber  
51\. Sastiel: Jock/Outcast AU  
52\. Sastiel: Meet the Parents  
53\. Sastiel: Friends Make a Porno (not sfw but also not explicit at all)  
54\. Otayuri: Friends Make a Porno (not sfw but also not explicit at all)  
55\. Casson: "This is probably a bad time, but marry me?"  
56\. Sastiel: “It’s my younger sibling's wedding and my father won’t shut up about how I’m going to die alone”  
57\. Sara/Mila/Michele: “My groom ditched me at the altar, but fuck them i’m taking this honeymoon anyway." (No Crispycest.)  
58\. Sastiel: “It’s our honeymoon but we’re spies/secret agents/whatever and bad guys keep appearing to ruin everything.”  
59\. SaMichael: Hammock Cuddles  
60\. Sastiel: "Will you marry me?"  
61\. Sastiel: "You taste like heaven."  
62\. Samazar: "Hello, gorgeous, do I know you?"  
63\. Wincest: "Yell, scream, say something!" (nsfw)  
64\. Sastiel: International Cat Day  
65\. SaMichael: "The stars wish they burned as bright as you."  
66\. Vichris: Slow Burn  
67\. Emil/Leo: Fake Dating  
68\. JJSeung: Enemies to Lovers  
69: Viktuuri: Fake Dating  
70: Otayuri: Enemies to Lovers  
71: JJ/Bella: Slow Burn  
72: Sastiel: Enemies to Lovers  
73\. SaMichael: Slow Burn  
74\. SaRaphael: Fake Dating  
75\. Georgi/Mari/Seung Gil: Slow Burn  
76\. Leojichu: Fake Dating  
77\. Viktor/Chris/Yuuri: Enemies to Lovers  
78\. Sastiel: Cuddle Time  
79\. Sastiel: "Baptize me."  
80\. Viktuuri: "If Only In My Dreams"  
81\. Otayuriseung: Sweater Paws and Cuddles  
82\. Sastiel: Being gifted tickets to see a family member overseas, but having to leave their S/O at home for christmas, not expecting them to turn up on their doorstep on christmas morning with a bouquet of roses.  
83\. Sastiel: Crawling into their roommate’s (S/O’s) bed because it is too cold in their own and they want cuddles  
84\. Viktuuri: Ice skating and them BOTH BEING REALLY GOOD ACTUALLY.  
85\. Sastiel: Buying animal-proof fairy lights, confusing their S/O, but it all makes sense when there’s an ENTIRE puppy in their living room on christmas day.  
86\. Sastiel: Spilling hot chocolate/coffee/a hot-fucking-beverage on the other and insisting on paying for a new drink and new clothes for them, unaware that they’re rich and very capable of buying themselves another coffee.  
87\. Sam/Chuck: Falling asleep in the passenger seat whilst their S/O drives them to a family members house for christmas, but not wanting to wake them for further directions because they look so p e a c e f u l.  
88\. Jammy: Remember Me  
89\. Sam/Chuck: Paint Me  
90\. SaRaphael: Tell Me  
91\. Sastiel: There’re billions of people on this planet, and I love you. How incredible is that?  
92\. Sastiel: Body Swap + Holiday  
93\. College AU + Didn't Know They Were Dating  
94\. Sastiel: Animal Transformation + Bedsharing  
95\. Sastiel: Proposal + Secret Relationship  
96\. Jammy: Enamor Me  
97\. Jammy: Wed Me  
98\. Dean & Sam & Jack: Sequel to Chapter 20  
99\. SaMichael: Washing their back/hair in the shower.  
100\. Sam/Chuck: Giving them a back massage when they flop on the couch or bed.  
101\. Sastiel: Mending an item of their clothing that was ripped.  
102\. Sastiel: Huddling for Warmth + Magical Accident  
103\. Wincestiel: Accidental Eavesdropping + Bed Sharing  



	2. Yuri/Seung Gil: “Why would you think something like that?”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tags: Abusive relationship, animal threat, underage relationship (canon ages in Barcelona)
> 
> After being kidnapped by the Hero of Kazakhstan, Yuri faces the music with his jealous boyfriend.

Yuri had kept his phone off almost the entire day. Now that he was back at the hotel, the fairy tale was over, Otabek was in his room and Yuri was in his own, it had to end and he had to face the music. Damn Viktor anyway - if he hadn’t interrupted them at the cafe while they had tea and then ruined the mood at dinner so that they were reminded they were rivals who would be competing against each other the next day...

He turned his phone back on and scrolled through the messages. They started bad, and by the last one, Yuri was scared. Seung Gil was never one to express his rage in words, and anyone else looking at the two words that made up the last ten messages - “Call me” - would have no idea how that call was going to go.

Yuri did. He braced himself. “Hi, Seung Gil.”

“Yurio.” Yuri flinched. Seung Gil thought the nickname was ridiculous and never used it except to hurt Yuri. “You think you can cheat on me since I didn’t make the Finals and that punk did?”

“No, Seung Gil, sir. I know how it looks, but it wasn’t like that. He remembered me from a camp years ago and just wanted to catch up and be friends.”

“It sure looked like he wanted a hell of a lot more than friendship from you. I don’t like him. I never have liked him. He’s no hero. You told him you have little use for friends, I trust?”

“Yes, sir. He asked me to give him the day to change my mind and I didn’t see the harm. He’s not going to...”

“You want to be with him. You’re lying to me.”

He wanted to be friends with Otabek, true. He was lying to Seung Gil, true. But the only way forward was to double down. “Why would you think something like that?”

“Because it’s obvious in these pictures. The way you’re clinging to him on his deathtrap, looking at him at the cafe, sitting beside him at dinner... you’re trying to use him to replace me.”

“I am not!” That was true. He had never thought anything like that. He just... didn’t think when he was with Otabek. “I love you, Seung Gil, sir, I could never replace you.” That was a lie, and now that Seung Gil had planted the idea...

“Say it again. Make me believe it this time.”

“I love you, Seung Gil, sir. I could never replace you.”

“I’ll be in Saint Petersburg when you get back from this competition. You’d better hope you’re more convincing in person.”

Yuri’s stomach plummetted and he sat on the bed. “Please, sir. Don’t hurt Potya.” He’d made the threat once before, to make Yuri give away his cat so that he could better focus on Seung Gil, 

“As if I cared enough about your cat to use it as leverage against you.”

“Thank you, sir.” Yuri’s stomach wouldn’t settle down, though.

“Very well. See you next week.” Seung Gil hung up without saying goodbye, and Yuri flopped on the bed. He was okay - until he thought of Potya. Then he got to his feet and ran. Otabek had given him his room number. He pounded on the door and didn’t have to wait long for Otabek to let him in.


	3. Wincestiel: “Stop yelling and listen for a second.”

The clattering of a breaking coffee cup startled Dean, and he turned around just in time to see Castiel stumble. “Cas! What’s wrong?” He caught Cas, holding him up until he’d recovered enough to stand without help.

Sam came running in. “Everything okay?”

“Yes.” Castiel looked down at the coffee cup. “Not really. A Nephilim has just been conceived...”

“A Nephilim?” Sam’s jaw dropped and he looked at Dean. “A human-angel hybrid?”

“Yes. They’re forbidden...”

Dean set his coffee down and grabbed Cas, slamming him against the wall. “What the fuck did you do.”

“I did nothing.” Castiel shoved at Dean, but Dean wouldn’t let go.

“You did nothing? Well SOMEONE did SOMETHING and you’re the only angel around here who likes humans! So explain!”

Sam scrubbed his face with his hands and then grabbed Dean’s shoulder. “Stop yelling and listen for a second.” Dean glared at him. “Cas is the only angel we know of who likes humans, but there are a lot of angels who are hanging out on Earth these days. It’s possible one of them fell in love... or in the old days before the Flood, a lot of the Nephilim were created by trickery or flat-out rape. Lucifer’s out there.”

“And Lucifer is the father of this Nephilim. How he chose or convinced the mother, I can’t say.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Dean let go of Cas. “I thought you’d done something stupid. You okay?”

“I’m fine. Even if I wanted to, neither you nor Sam are exactly equipped to carry a Nephilim. It would require me to take a female vessel, which would mean taking another human from their life and family, not to mention the consent issues involved.”

“Yeah. Exactly.” Dean picked up his coffee and took a sip to hide his embarrassment.

“Huh?”

Sam cleared his throat. “Dean, uh. Thought you were cheating on us.”

Castiel glared at Dean. “I wouldn’t do that.”

“I know, man, but... Nephilim.” Dean shook his head. “I’m sorry. You know me. Act first, think later.”

“That’s no excuse for thinking I would cheat on you and Sam. I’m going to go learn what I can about the Nephilim. Goodbye.” Castiel disappeared. Sam glared at Dean and wandered off without a word.

Well, shit. They’d forgive him. In the meantime, it looked like Dean had some research to do.


	4. YuuYu: “Why didn’t you tell me? I thought you trusted me.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: abuse, Yuri/OC, Viktuuri

Yuri was supposed to be at the rink for practice, but he wasn’t there. Viktor wasn’t there, either, but Yuuri let everyone know that Viktor had been taken out by the flu. “He’s probably just being dramatic about telling me to ask you to take over permanently after the funeral, Yakov, but he wouldn’t let go until I promised not to go to another coach without at least asking.”

Yakov snorted. “That sounds like Vitya. Tell him that if he dies, I’m kicking you out of the rink to fend for yourself.” Yuuri gasped and Yakov facepalmed. “I’m not going to do it! If I thought for a second you’d go along with it I’d be stealing you anyway. It’ll just motivate Vitya to get better.”

“O-oh.” Yuuri blushed. “Should I go check on Yuri? Since my coach isn’t here?”

“I’m here. Until Vitya gets back, I’m your coach. If you want to stay, stay. But, yes, someone probably should go check on Yuri.”

 

Yuuri got to Yuri’s apartment to find the door unlocked. “Yuri?”

Yuri was still in bed. That was the first problem. Yuri didn’t immediately tell Yuuri to fuck off. That was the second problem. “Yuri, what’s wrong?”

“I… I can’t skate today. Tell Yakov I’m sick. I’m sorry. I should have called.”

Yuuri moved closer to the bed. Yuri apologizing… something was very wrong. “Is there anything you need? Do I need to do something for Potya?”

“No thank you. I… I think I’ll be able to get up long enough to make sure he has food and water, and he’s a cat, he can entertain himself for a day or two.”

“Yuri, what’s wrong?” Yuuri reached out to feel his forehead for a fever.

Now Yuri finally showed some flashes of his usual angry self, smacking Yuuri’s hand away from him. “Don’t touch me! I’m just sick! Flu or something, that’s all! I’ll be at practice tomorrow, I can look after Potya, just leave me alone.”

“All right. If you change your mind, you can call me, you know. Get some rest.”

 

Yuri wasn’t at practice the next day, so Yuuri went back. This time, Yuri was at least out of bed, although he was moving very gingerly and struggling to lift the bag of kibble to fill Potya’s kibble bowl. “What’s wrong, Yuri?”

Yuri sighed. “I was wrong about how quickly I’d recover. I usually don’t miss more than one day of practice when I’m sick. Don’t worry about me.”

“I’m sorry, have you met me?” Yuuri reached out and took the kibble from Yuri. “What is it? Flu?”

“Yeah. I’m just really exhausted. Don’t you ever get sick?”

“Not often. There’s a reason sick people are sent to warm seaside areas, you know, the air’s supposed to be really good for getting better. I grew up in a warm seaside town. It’s in my blood.”

Yuri rolled his eyes. “You’re ridiculous.” He bent over to pick up Potya’s water dish, and his shirt rode up, exposing the bruises on his back.

“What happened, Yuri?”

Yuri straightened up and yanked his shirt back into place, cheeks flaming. “Nothing! I just bruise easily!”

“You might have had a chance of getting me to believe that if we didn’t spend hours together every day beating the crap out of our bodies without me ever seeing a bruise on you before.” Yuuri crossed his arms. “Why didn’t you tell me? I thought you trusted me.”

“It’s not you I don’t trust.” Yuri wrapped his arms around himself. “Please, can’t you just tell people I have a nasty case of the flu and forget about this?”

“No. Yuri, show me. How bad is it?”

Yuri wouldn’t meet Yuuri’s eyes as he stripped off his shirt and dropped his pajama bottoms. The bruises covered his torso and thighs. “He said that if anyone found out, he’d finish the job next time.”

“Who?” Yuuri felt sick. “Yuri, did Otabek…?”

“Fuck you. No. Vasya didn’t like Beka staying here when he came to visit, or that I wouldn’t ditch Beka to hang out with him.”

Somehow, that was even worse. “I know you’re loving having your own place, but… you shouldn’t stay here alone. You need to get out of here.”

“I know. I can’t go back to Lilia’s though, not until these bruises are gone, and where else am I supposed to go? Grandpa’s in Moscow and I’ll go there if I have to, but I’d have to tell him why…”

Yuuri very carefully hugged Yuri. “You spend a lot of time with me and Viktor anyway. Come stay with us until we can figure out something better.”

“What about Potya?”

“What about him? He comes too, of course. He and Makkachin get along when he stays there while we’re looking after him for you.”

Yuri collapsed, letting Yuuri’s arms hold him up. “Thank you.”


	5. Vikturio: “I guess time flies when you’re with somebody you love.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Part 2](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12887763/chapters/29618514)

Yuri felt horrible when he woke up that morning. He had no idea why, until he noticed Viktor’s side of the bed was cold. He walked out to the living room, to find his husband sitting on the couch, tears streaming down his face as he stared at a picture of Yuuri.

“Oh my god.” Yuri came and sat beside him. “Ten years, isn’t it.”

“Yes.” Viktor wiped his eyes. “Most of the time, I’m over the pain, but sometimes... I woke up late last night convinced that it should be Yuuri beside me and it felt like losing him all over again when I realized he hadn’t been there for ten years.”

Yuri swallowed back his own tears as he picked up the picture of Otabek they kept on the end table. It had long since stopped hurting to look at him, but he understood exactly what Viktor meant, today. “Do you think they’d be happy for us?”

Viktor set aside the picture of Yuuri to wrap his arms around Yuri. “I know they would. Every time I see the pictures, I can feel their happiness that we’ve helped each other move on and be happy. That’s all Yuuri ever wanted for me, or Otabek wanted for you. Remember when he thought you and Mila were dating?”

Yuri snorted. “Oh my god, that was hilarious. I really thought he was going to hit her when she started talking about how in love she was with Sara! Yes, it upset me, but not for the reasons he thought. At least that forced us to talk to each other and get over our fear of screwing up our friendship. And Yuuri... I still get the urge to smack him anytime I see something about the Barcelona final, when he was going to retire to get you back on the ice because he thought he was killing you by keeping you to himself.”

“Not much point to smacking him now. Ten years.” Viktor kissed Yuri. “I can’t believe it’s been that long.”

“I guess time flies when you’re with somebody you love.”


	6. Yuuri/Toshiya: “I thought maybe we can do a little more than just kissing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PHAYTE IS A MONSTER.
> 
> This is what happens when you prompt smut - you end up with crack. :-þ

Yuuri was going to DIE. This was so embarrassing! His father sat across the table from him, pad of paper in front of him and book propped up beside him. “Yuuri? Are you listening to me?”

“Yes, Dad.” As much as he would rather be literally anywhere else doing anything else right now, he was sitting here, and he was listening, because if he didn’t listen he wouldn’t pass the quiz his dad would give him at the end and then he’d just get to do this again tomorrow.

“Good.” Toshiya opened the book. “I thought maybe we can do a little more than just kissing, today.”

Yuuri covered his face. “Yes, Dad.”

“I’ve noticed your crush on that beautiful foreign boy, so that gives me some idea what you need, but are you interested in girls too?”

“Dad!” Yuuri thought he was going to explode. He briefly considered lying - admitting to being bi would mean extra sex ed - but then what would happen if he ended up with a woman? His father would be so disappointed in him.

Toshiya reached over and patted Yuuri’s shoulder gently. “I know you’re fond of Yuuko, but I’ve never known if that was a sexual thing or just you looking up to your best friend.”

“It’s... I like girls, too.” If he was going to die, may as well get it over with.

“All right, then. I have a lot more experience with that one, so we’ll start there, but...”

Yuuri’s head snapped up. “Wait a minute, a lot more? You have experience with...” He cut himself off with a hand over his mouth. It was none of his business what his dad had done before he got involved with Hiroko, and if it was afterward, he really did not want to know about it. Not that he wanted to know anything about his dad’s sex life.

“When I was sixteen, I had an older boyfriend. It was not a long-lived relationship, but it was an intense one. Then he graduated college and I never saw him again. I don’t know if he ever really loved me, but he treated me well when he was here and he never led me to believe that it was anything more than just a good time.” He paused. “I wonder where he is now. I hadn’t thought of him in years before I noticed you and your handsome foreigner.” He clapped his hands. “Anyway! I suppose the first part is the same no matter who you’re thinking about, because it’s all about you.”


	7. Wincest: "Who did this?  Who hurt you?"

Finding a random body lying in the cemetery wasn’t exactly normal. Even less normal was finding a random living body lying in the cemetery. Sam hit his knees almost immediately to check the pulse and breathing. Dean called 911.

He was still on the phone when the woman groaned and tried to sit up. Sam put a hand on her shoulder. “Hey. Hey hey hey. Take it easy. You’re really badly hurt. My brother’s calling for help, just save your strength, okay?”

She coughed. “You’re... not going to hurt me?”

“No.” Sam looked up at Dean. “I know how this looks, two big guys with guns coming in here like this, but I promise. We just want to help.”

“Not like I could stop you if you wanted to finish the job...”

Sam waited, but she trailed off. “Who did this? Who hurt you?”

“This guy... we were on a date, and he... turned out to be a giant asshole. I told him something and he freaked out and beat me up and dumped me here.” She coughed. “I can tell the cops his name and phone number, but he’ll get off.”

“Don’t know unless you try.” Sam glanced at Dean, who nodded. He had someone. “What’s your name?”

“Dora Utley. You... thanks.”

“All right, Dora, is there anything we can do while we wait on the ambulance? Anything we’ll need to tell the paramedics if you can’t?”

Dora shook her head. “My phone... I keep a list of medicines in a file, and emergency contacts. My sister. Don’t call my dad, he’ll say he told me so and I deserve this as a lesson in safety. He never liked Charles.”

 

Once the ambulance was gone, Dean hugged Sam. “The power of the puppy eyes strikes again. I can’t believe you got her to trust us like that.”

“What can I say? At least I use my powers for good?”

“Got some other powers you can use for good when we get back to the hotel? Telekinesis maybe?”

“Screw you.” Sam shoved Dean off of him, but he was laughing.

Dean smirked at him. “Yeah, that is the general idea, bro.”


	8. Phiciaociao: "You look really cute in that."

“You look really cute in that.”

Phichit jumped and turned around. He hadn’t heard the door open - he didn’t think there was anyone but him and Celestino at the rink, but when you were in a secret relationship, the paranoia never quite went away. He wasn’t shy about his body at all, but still, being unexpectedly exposed was not great.

But it was Celestino, leaning on the door and winking at him. “Don’t DO that, Ciao Ciao! You nearly gave me a heart attack!”

“You don’t recognize my voice by now? All this time...”

Phichit picked up his towel and threw it at his boyfriend. “You are such a dick, you know that?”

“I know you seem to like dick, so thank you, I’ll take that as a compliment.”

The last traces of anger disappeared and Phichit started giggling. “Oh my god, Celestino. What’s gotten into you tonight? You are awful!”

“I don’t know, but I do know what hasn’t gotten into me tonight.”

Phichit’s giggles became full-blown laughter. “CIAO CIAO!”

“It occurred to me that I used to have sex in the locker room showers all the time, back when I was skating, and yet I’ve never had sex in here. Rink’s locked up, we’re the only ones here, want to fix that?”

“Only if you promise to give the dad jokes a rest.”

“All right, fine. But you do look cute in that.”

Phichit looked down at himself. “In what? I’m not wearing anything...” And he’d walked right into that one, hadn’t he.

Celestino smirked. “Exactly.”


	9. Wincest: "What you did was stupid and dangerous and scared the hell out of me!"

Sam would like to say that the reason he and Dean were alive was that they were the right combination of good, lucky, and smart, but that was bullshit. They were alive because they were important in some grand scheme of Heaven, and because of that they were on a first-name basis with God and pizza date basis with Death and they knew more resurrection methods than a level 20 cleric.

They were good, and they were lucky. Smart... that was debatable. Sam was certainly not going to say it of Dean right now. “I cannot believe you. Cannot. Fucking. Believe. You.”

“What? Someone had to do something, and I wasn’t gonna sit back and watch someone else play the hero and get hurt!”

“Yeah, but what you did was stupid and dangerous and scared the Hell out of me!”

“Was actually counting on that, Sammy. Cas says Azazel picked babies that already had some kind of powers, so you probably had your powers before he activated ‘em. If you were born with them, they’re not demonic or evil, so why not use them?”

Sam’s jaw dropped, and he had to try a couple times before he could speak. “You hated me using my powers even before we knew they were demonic!”

“I was freaked out by them, yeah, we didn’t know where they came from or what they’d do to you. Now, everything we’ve seen... they’re just a part of who you are, and one you’ve been suppressing. We saw with Magda what can happen if you suppress powers too hard, so Cas and I thought we should try to bring them out. Okay? Cas’ll work with you to develop your powers, and I’ll do what I can to support it. Okay?”

“No! Not okay! If you being supportive means you are JUMPING IN FRONT OF BULLETS then NO!”

Dean didn’t look nearly as contrite as Sam would have liked, but he shrugged. “Okay. No more jumping in front of bullets. Also not gonna get you demon blood so you can juice up.”

“Good. Jerk.”

“Bitch.” Dean raised an eyebrow at Sam. “So, time for the ‘you-nearly-died’ ritual?”

Sam facepalmed. “You know you don’t have to nearly get yourself killed to get me to sleep with you, right?”


	10. Wincest: "I always want to kiss you."

Sam was disgusting. He was filthy, probably diseased, and nobody should touch him until he could somehow scrub himself clean. It was not going to be an easy task. It felt like he was dirty all the way down to his bone marrrow. He was seriously gross and if Dean knew what was good for him he wouldn’t even let Sam into the Impala, let alone anything closer. This was not something a motel shower was equipped to handle. Pressure washer might do the trick. Last resort he’d salt and burn himself, but that was a little extreme.

Dean took one look at him and started laughing. “Oh man, Sam. What did you do, try to wear the zombie flesh as a disguise to get close to the other zombies? Man your big brain was probably screaming ‘EAT ME’ so loud you were summoning zombies from three counties away!”

“Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, how the hell are we going to get this shit off me?” Sam did not want to admit to the fact that some of it was, literally, shit. Not if he didn’t have to.

“No idea, bro.” Dean sauntered over to examine him from closer. “Well, I guess step one is get you out of those clothes and burn them, nothing else we can do for them but put them out of our misery. C’mon Sammy, strip for me?” He waggled his eyebrows.

Sam started removing his clothes. Dean was right about them, and it would at least help with getting himself clean. He also shook out his hair, spraying blood and guts everywhere. “Don’t even start about a haircut. It’s not happening.”

“I was gonna say you look like a cute puppy, shaking your hair like that. C’mere.” Dean started toward him.

Sam backed up and finished getting his clothes off. There was still more than enough crap covering him that he felt disgusting, but apparently, not enough to deter his brother. Dean reached out to him. “Seriously? You want to kiss me _now_?”

“I always want to kiss you.” Sam rolled his eyes and let Dean catch him. His funeral. Maybe when Dean had some of this on him, he’d agree that they should spring for somewhere with a good shower.


	11. Sastiel: “I wish I didn’t have these feelings, but I do.”

Sam was not supposed to be hearing this conversation, that much he was sure of. Dean seemed to have forgotten Sam was in the next room, or he’d have made Castiel shut up or leave.

He’d arrived without warning. Typical, really. “Dean. Help me.”

“What’s wrong? You look fine to me.”

Sam was about to go in and offer to help as well when Castiel explained. “It’s Sam. Being around him is... confusing.”

Well if being around Sam was confusing, he wasn’t going to force his presence on Castiel. What he should do was walk out, sneak out of the house entirely, find one of Bobby’s junk trucks to hide in until Castiel was gone. What he did, which he was ashamed of but he couldn’t help himself, was curl up just outside the door so he could eavesdrop.

“Confusing how? He’s my brother. You wanna work with me, you work with him.” Good old predictable Dean. Sam had to smile.

“I know. He inspires... feelings. I don’t know what to do about them. I’m an angel. I’m not supposed to have feelings at all, particularly not feelings of this nature. I wish I didn’t have these feelings, but I do.”

Sam swallowed hard and fought down the hurt. He’d suspected Castiel didn’t like him, which he told himself was fine, it hurt but forcing someone to like him had never worked. He could deal with that. Actively hating him? That... that hurt. A lot.

A smack, followed by Dean’s muffled cursing, barely lifted Sam’s spirits. “I thought you were better than that winged dick who threatened to smite him. I really did. What is it you want me to do? You gotta find a way to work with him, or you can just put me right back in Hell where you got me because I’m not working with you either.”

“I’m not sending you back to Hell.” Sam breathed a quick sigh of relief. He could deal with Castiel’s hatred a lot better than he could with Dean being in Hell. “I want you to help me... wait. Threatened to smite him? Uriel did?”

“Sam said so, after that thing with Samhain. And no offense, but your buddy’s exactly the kind of asshole who’d do it, too. Why would Sam lie about that?” Dean sounded uncertain, which caused Sam to tear up a little. Before Hell and Ruby, Dean would never have questioned him.

Castiel didn’t sound uncertain. He sounded pissed. That was a little confusing. “He wouldn’t. Uriel wouldn’t smite him. No angel in Heaven would harm him. We need you, and you won’t do anything without him. I suppose Uriel hoped you and Sam wouldn’t know that we know that, but we do.”

“So...” Dean prompted.

“So, you’re right. I’ll just have to figure out how to work around these feelings. I’m sorry to have bothered you. Please be sure and reassure Sam that no one’s going to smite him, and if I find out that Uriel’s trying, I will smite Uriel.” Castiel disappeared with no more warning than he’d come in with.


	12. Wincest - “I like it when you say my name like that.”

“Dean.” Sam’s voice was hoarse, rough, barely more than a croak as he coughed up some blood.

“Sammy. You okay, little brother?”

“I’ll live. You?”

“Yeah, I’m good.”

“Good. That’s good. We’re both good.” Sam took a few shuddering breaths. “I like it when you say my name like that.”

“Like what? You hate it when I call you Sammy.”

“No, I don’t. Not anymore. When you’re calling me Sammy, you’re not pissed at me or disappointed in me or any of the other things that have become entirely too common the last few years. It means you still love me. That’s not what I meant, though. Sam, Sammy, little brother, it’s more the tone.”

“What are you talking about, Sammy?”

“Like all you need is to hear me say I’m okay. Like your world is falling apart and your life sucks, but it’s all worth it, as long as I’m here with you in the craptastic world. Like you love me more than you can ever put into words so you have to make my name do the trick. And it does.”

“Sammy, did you hit your head?”

“Yeah. Couple times. Bloody nose, pretty sure I’m gonna have some bumps, but hey. I’ll live.”

“Hoooooo boy. Come on, Sammy, let’s get you out of here before you get any sappier. Chill, okay?”

“No, it’s already too cold in here. I need to heat up. Heat me up, Dean?”

“That’s it. CAS!” Cas arrived immediately. “Sam’s telling me he’s fine but he’s also talking nonsense and complaining of being cold.”

“It is a very good thing you two have an angel who likes you. Otherwise you would both be crippled by CTE by now.” Castiel healed Sam’s head wounds and disappeared.

Sam shook his head. “Ugh. Wow. I meant every word of it, Dean.”

“Just don’t start talking about it again?”

“Sure. Too chick-flick for you. I got it.”

“Also if you’re talking you’re not kissing me. There’s that, too.”

“There’s that.”


	13. Phiciaociao: Happy Birthday Phayte!

As it turns out, hooking up in motels around competitions is way different than sleeping over at a guy’s house. They weren’t drunk and exhausted when they fell into bed, and in the morning, they weren’t rushing around getting whichever of them was in the other’s room back to their own to get ready for the day. They had time, they had space, and while everyone knew Phichit was staying Celestino’s over the break between Four Continents and Worlds, no one would have a reason to discover where, exactly, Phichit was sleeping.

Today was Celestino’s day off, but he still woke up early. When Phichit woke up, Celestino was just starting to work on his hair. He must have made some kind of noise, because Celestino turned around and smiled at him. “Good morning.”

“Good morning. Can I help?”

Celestino looked a little doubtful. “Do you know what you’re doing with long hair?”

“I’ve never had mine long but I do have little sisters and I used to help them with their hair all the time. I got this. Trust me?”

Celestino smiled and held out the comb. “Go for it.”

Phichit took the comb and started working out the tangles in Celestino’s hair. It wasn’t too bad, really, Celestino did a good job taking care of it and with the ponytail it didn’t get blown around too much. When he reached for the hair tie, though, Celestino caught his arm. “Are we going anywhere today?”

“Not that I know of, why?”

“Leave it, then. I've gotten the sense you like playing with it, and it's easier if it's not tied back.” Celestino leaned back against Phichit, making it a hug. “I’m sorry I doubted you. You did great. I should’ve known you’d be great at this.”

“Thanks, Ciao Ciao. I love you too.”


	14. Wincest - "Nothing good ever happens past midnight."

Sam groaned a lot as Dean shook him. He did not want to be waking up. He had school in the morning, including a big math test. He did not care what Dean’s reasons were, if he failed that math test because Dean woke him up at... wow, 12:02 a.m.... he was going to kick his brother in the knees. “Why are you waking me up, Dean? Nothing good ever happens past midnight.”

It was true. In Sam’s experience, being awakened after midnight nearly always meant Dad needed help on a hunt, Dad had finished the hunt but fucked up something in the area so badly that they needed to move on immediately instead of staying to check out of school properly, someone was hurt and needed Sam to come slap a bandage on it, or Sam had fucked something up and Dad was too drunk to care that Sam was asleep and wanted to yell at him for it now.

“C’mon, Sammy. Trust me this time. Just this once, this is something good, okay?” Dean slapped his leg. “Come on. You don’t have to pack anything, you don’t have to get dressed if you don’t want to, just come outside with me. No one’s around to see us.”

“Where’s Dad?”

“Still in Illinois, still with Bobby and his pal Rufus looking for that werewolf. You know he’s not gonna come back tonight, not with tonight being the last of the full moon, so it’s just you and me tonight.”

Sam got up. “Fine. So what’s so important that you’re dragging me out of bed?”

“Your birthday, dude. It’s May 2nd. You’re eighteen. We had plans for this, remember? Only been talking about it for three years, when Dad couldn’t hear us?”

Sam paused, one leg hanging off the bed and the other kind of awkwardly midair. The plans they’d been talking about for three years - he’d been begging Dean to give in, to just acknowledge that if their lives were going to be fucked up they may as well go all in and take something good for themselves. Neither of them had said anything for the last six months, after the night John Winchester had drunkenly accused Sam of being a demon changeling here to corrupt his good son away from him instead of the baby boy his Mary had carried and given birth to. Sam had assumed things were off, that Dean was willing to sacrifice his love for Sam on the altar of being John’s Good Soldier/Son.

Apparently, he’d been wrong.

“Okay, but... there a reason you’re getting me out of bed for this?” Sam asked. “Seems to me like this would be a good place for it.”

“A good place, sure, and if you want we can come back here later, but first time? Just feels wrong to have it in some interchangeable motel room we won’t even remember in two months. Backseat of the Impala’s been home for you and me for so long, just feels wrong to take you anywhere else.”


	15. Sastiel: "I hope you know my name is actually Sam."

Going to the same high school as his older brother was hell sometimes. The other kids expected him to be like Dean, which was a problem because Dean was cool and popular and into sports and cars and could make friends with anyone and they knew it. He wasn’t. He was good at sports, and he participated because he might as well, but he wasn’t a jock. He wasn’t cool, and he wasn’t popular. He was a nerd. He owned it. He didn’t care - but it made it awkward when people expected him to be a jock. The nerds looked at him funny when he tried to join them because he was an athlete, the jocks ostracized him because he was a nerd, which meant he was on his own.

He was used to that, though. He was fine on his own. Dean and his group would let him tag along, and some of them were even nice about including him fully - Jo and Charlie, in particular, treated him like one of the group. Gordon was an asshole about it, and Benny wasn’t exactly happy, but no one threw too much fuss about it.

If he could only get them to not call him Sammy, it would be kinda nice, really. Almost like having friends of his own.

And then there was Castiel. The first day Dean dragged Sam along, Castiel said something about him being the boy with the demon blood and then ignored him. Sam had been so shocked that he couldn’t protest. He just left as soon as Dean would let him, and ever since, he had avoided being in the same place as Castiel.

It was not Sam’s fault that he’d developed aplastic anemia as a baby, or that his mother had died from the same chemical exposure, trying to shield Sam from the chemicals and therefore receiving a much higher exposure. It was not Sam’s fault that the attempt at transplanting bone marrow had failed. It was not Sam’s fault that his dad had spread the rumor that the only reason Sam survived the thing was that he had demon blood rather than human now. That was the fault of Jim, Jack, and Jose.

That would also be the reason why Sam had been living with Bobby Singer most of his life. He saw Dean regularly but never met Dean’s friends.

He wished that were still true sometimes, like today. Sam had freaked out when he was handed an unlabeled chemical and told it was benzene. It wasn’t - it was plain old distilled water - but Sam had a good reason to be horrified at the thought of handling benzene. He’d dropped the flask and run off. Uriel found him and told him off, and now he was hiding in the bathroom until the tears disappeared.

“Sammy?”

Crap. Castiel. Why Dean would send Cas of all people to find him... “I hope you know my name is actually Sam. Dean’s the only one who gets to call me Sammy.”

“My apologies. I heard Uriel telling Zachariah about you. I’m sorry about Hael’s behavior. Deliberately misidentifying a chemical is a horrible thing to do to anyone, but especially in your case, that was just cruel. Is there anything I can do to help you?”

“Why do you even care?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“I’m a demon.”

“No, you aren’t.” Sam looked up, so he saw the moment Castiel realized what he was talking about, and the pain and regret that flooded his entire body language. “Is that why you’ve avoided me all year? Sam, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that the way it must have come out. I... have horrible people skills, and any time I asked Michael or Gabriel why you weren’t here with your father and brother, that’s what they told me. When I finally met you, I was so surprised you’d come back that I didn’t know what to say. I’ve wanted to meet you for years, and I cannot apologize enough for how badly I messed up our first meeting. The way your brother talks about you, I know you must be a wonderful person, and I hope you’ll forgive me my ill-chosen greeting and give me another chance to get to know you.”


	16. Wincest: “Why should we date?” “Because we are attracted to each other.” “I am attracted to pie, but I do not feel the need to date pie.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Weecest, John Knows, sarcastic references to piefucking and vore

Dean rubbed the bridge of his nose. Of all the things he’d expected to hear from his little brother when he asked why Sam was so distracted that he lost the wrestling match in less than ten seconds… this was not one. “I don’t get it, Sammy. Why should we date?”

“Because we’re attracted to each other. Don’t even try to deny it, you were totally checking out my ass earlier, and you’re not as subtle as you think you are when it comes to ‘accidentally’ being all over me. Especially when there’s someone I like around.”

“I’m attracted to pie. I don’t feel the need to date pie.” Dean wiped away the sweat, hoping it would pass as a result of the long day’s workout their dad had put them through. He’d have to be a lot more careful if Sam was starting to notice. If Sam was noticing, Dad might, too, and Dad would kill him.

Sam shot him a bitchface. “Have you watched American Pie one time too many? Do you seriously want to stick your dick in pie? Date or not, I’m not letting you eat me.”

“Who says I want to stick my dick in you?” Never mind that yes, he did, to his eternal shame. What’s a little lying between brothers when it preserves both of their sanities?

“Dad, for one. Me. Bobby. And if Dad and Bobby are telling me about it, it means they don’t really give a shit if you do it as long as I’m okay with it, and I am - if you take me out on a date first.”

“Or they’re warning you hoping you’ve got the sense to shut me down and make me stop looking at you like that, ever think of that?”

“Yeah. Dad’s words were ‘your brother wants to fuck you, if you need help getting him to back off yell, otherwise just don’t make me watch or hear anything.’ Real easy to misunderstand. Bobby was a little less direct, but the message was the same.”

Dean’s mouth dropped open, and he stared at Sam. Dad wouldn’t have said that if he didn’t mean it exactly like it sounded.


	17. Wincest: "Someone's cranky." "Someone needs to shut up."

“Would you look at this? Who does this shit?” Dean stared at the Impala in dismay. It had been egged - Sam couldn’t blame Dean for the anger, this meant repainting her, and that was going to be annoying. At least it wasn’t far to Bobby’s, and they could do the work themselves.

Still, Sam wouldn’t be doing his job as a little brother if he didn’t tease Dean about it. “Someone’s cranky.”

“Someone needs to shut up,” Dean snapped.

"Someone needs to make me.” It was only after the words were out that he realized what Dean was likely going to take from it.

Indeed, Dean’s head snapped up. “Yeah? You think so? You want me to make you shut up?”

“You want me to shut up, get over here and make me. Or you could take me inside and make me scream instead. Maybe you’ll be less cranky if you get laid.”


	18. Wincest: "I already know that I’m going to Hell.  At this point, it’s really go big or go home.”

Dean was not going to get any sleep, he knew it. Every time he closed his eyes, he felt fire. There was a demon army loose on Earth - thankfully, without its general to keep them in line and do whatever it was Yellow Eyes had meant for them to do, and demons weren’t exactly known for being self-organizing.

If he wasn’t gonna sleep, he may as well get up and grab a beer. As soon as his feet hit the floor, though, he stopped. A soft noise from the other bed filtered through his haze. Sam was awake and crying.

Dean walked over and sat on the bed beside Sam. He hesitated only briefly before pulling the covers back and settling in, holding his brother, letting Sammy cry on his shoulder like he had when they were kids.

“Dean? What...”

“Just let me do this, okay, Sammy? Please?”

“Why now?”

“Because Dad’s dead and no matter what I said he was the only thing that ever stopped me from being here like this? He said we were too old to share a bed, so I stopped, but I never wanted to.”

“But...”

“Besides. I already know that I’m going to Hell. At this point, it’s really go big or go home.”

Sam choked out something halfway between a sob and a laugh. “You’re not going to Hell, Dean. I won’t let you.”

“Well. We’ll see. In the meantime, you gonna push me away, or you gonna let me stay here?”

“You can stay.” Sam cuddled in against Dean.


	19. Russian Skate Fam: "Do I get bonus points if I act like I care?"

Yuri groaned as he groped for his phone. He’d been looking forward to getting to relax, maybe call Beka, maybe watch some cat videos on YouTube. Whoever this was, it was probably going to interfere with his chance to relax. “What?”

Mila. Figured. “Go to the store, get some chocolate and potato chips, and get over to Georgi’s.”

“Oh god. Katya dumped him?”

“Technically, he dumped her, but you know Georgi, he’ll take it just as hard.”

“Do I get bonus points if I act like I care? Katya sucked. I don’t even know what Georgi was thinking dating that dumbass.”

“I don’t either. Pretty much all she had going for her was that she was hot and she’d let Georgi fuck her. She was a total bitch, complete killjoy, doesn’t even like figure skating, and nobody liked her. I thought Georgi was better than that, but apparently not. But come on, it’s Georgi, he’s our rinkmate, can you at least care that he’s sad?”

“Yeah, I guess. The Old Man and the Piggy coming?”

“Yeah, Viktor’s getting the vodka and Yuuri’s already over there cooking the real food. If you don’t want to drink, you might want to grab yourself some soda or something.”

“Yeah, yeah. See you soon.”


	20. Sam & Jack: "I just feel safe with you.  Like nothing bad can happen."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sequel to [this](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12887763/chapters/29441325).

Despite Lucifer being dead, Jack stuck close to Sam and Castiel. He didn’t like to be too far from one or the other. Even in the Bunker, he was happier if he had them with him.

Jack was still hesitant to be left alone with Dean, even. “I think he still wants to kill me.”

“He... doesn’t want to kill you,” Sam said somewhat helplessly. “He’s just skeptical of anything that’s not fully human. For a while, there was a time when I was just waiting for him to remember he’d decided he had to kill me and get it over with.”

“Why would he want to kill you? You’re human. You’re his brother and he loves you very much.”

“I have demon blood, and it gave me powers.”

Jack frowned. “But Castiel said that demon blood can only amplify powers that are already there, it doesn’t grant powers.”

“Wait, what?”

“Ask Castiel about it? I don’t know. He’s trying to teach me all the stuff I should have learned in Heaven when I was a child, but it’s slow going.”

“Huh. Anyway, I was using demon blood to enhance my powers, wherever they came from, and I beat the crap out of him and took off with a demon. I didn’t know it at the time, but she was taking me to break the last seal on Lucifer’s cage and start all this. Dean called and said that Dad always said he’d have to save me or kill me, and that he was done trying to save me. Not hard to read the implication.”

“Huh. What changed his mind?”

Sam shrugged. “I don’t know. He just... never brought it up. I’ve never really wanted to ask, either. The point here is that just because he’s watching to see if he has to kill you doesn’t mean he wants to. At least he’s being honest with you - he always told me that there was no way he’d kill me, that he couldn’t do it. Then he said he was going to.”

“And this is why I prefer having you and Castiel around when he is. I just feel safe with you. Like nothing bad can happen.”

Sam’s eyes got a little misty and he hugged Jack. “Cas and I love you, no matter what, Jack.”


	21. Sam/Chuck: "I'm sorry that I got way too into playing house and accidentally kissed you passionately."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Prequel](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12887763/chapters/30849156)

Sam was thoroughly SICK of having people mess with his head. He’d just spent the past day trapped in some sort of bizarre alternate reality. It hadn’t been bad - he’d been in a happy, apple-pie life. Slightly bizarre, but he could see how he’d have been happy in it.

He was a lawyer in family court, specializing in cases of child neglect and abuse. When he went home, it was to a rather large family - his husband Chuck, his wife Becky, his brothers Dean and Cas, their wives Jo and Anna, and all of their kids. It was chaotic, but it was fun. The kids were all little angels.

In retrospect, being married to Becky should’ve been a warning, but whatever, it had felt right in the dream. Being happy should’ve been an even bigger warning. Sam wasn’t allowed happiness. He knew that.

“Stop that.”

Sam jumped and looked around. Chuck stood in front of him. “Chuck? What... stop what... wait... the alternate universe... were you there?”

“I created it, Sam. Do me a favor, reach into that inside pocket.”

“Which one?” Sam’s hand was already inside his jacket when he realized the problem. This was gonna be awkward if he’d used the wrong hand.

Chuck smiled. “You know which one.”

Sam fished the amulet out and gasped when Chuck reached for it. It began to glow, and felt warm in his hand. Castiel’s words from the Apocalypse came back to him. The amulet would glow in the presence of... “God? You’re God?”

“Yeah, but I prefer Chuck, especially from you.” Chuck gave him back the amulet.

Sam wrapped his hand around it and immediately blushed. “Uh. I’m... that alternate universe, I didn’t mean to...”

“Sam, I created that universe. If I’d had a problem with you kissing me, I wouldn’t have made you my husband.”

“So that’s not why you ended it? So you wouldn’t have to...” Sam cringed at the idea. They’d been about to have sex, and there’s no way God would want to sleep with an abomination.

“You’re right. I wouldn’t want to sleep with an abomination. That’s got nothing to do with you, though. I ended the universe because I did want to sleep with you, but it was hardly fair. I mean, in that universe, you were in love with me. In this one, the one that’s real to you, you’re pretty angry with me already, and I get why. Not gonna take advantage of that.”

“Huh?”

“If you decide to sleep with me here, even if it’s just to make me prove that I’m willing to, that’s your choice and you’ve got the information you need to make an informed one.” Chuck cleared his throat and looked away. "I'm sorry that I got way too into playing house and accidentally kissed you passionately before ending things.”

“Why did you play house with me?” Sam asked. He had to know.

Chuck’s embarrassment disappeared. “Castiel’s been telling me about you. It’s not exactly normal for an angel to pray in human fashion, but he prayed for you to know peace and happiness and that you are loved and deemed worthy of redemption. I’m trying to figure out how to do that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Sequel](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12887763/chapters/30850908)


	22. Wincest: “What do you mean alcohol isn’t an appropriate coping mechanism’? It’s working.”

“Dean, we need to talk.”

Dean rolled his eyes. Just what he needed. A chick flick moment with his little brother, when every night he was still closing his eyes and finding himself right back in Hell torturing the one person he’d never thought he could hurt. And then he comes back to find that Sam’s using his powers, that Heaven’s telling him to stop Sam or they will.

He finished off the beer he had and reached for another one. “Fine. What do we need to talk about?”

Sam gestured to the beer. “That. You’ve always enjoyed drinking, but since you got back from Hell, that’s not what you’re doing. This isn’t drinking to enjoy yourself and have fun, this is drinking to cope. Don’t give me that crap about you not remembering Hell. If you don’t wanna talk about it to me, that’s fine, but you gotta find someone to open up to and talk about it, because alcohol is not a healthy coping mechanism.”

“What do you mean alcohol isn’t an appropriate coping mechanism? It’s working.” Dean pointedly opened the bottle and chugged half of it.

“Is it, Dean? Because it seems to me like you’re having to use more and more of it.”

“Dude. Why do you even care?”

“I care because I saw what it did to Dad! I care because even if you won’t talk to me about Hell, I can still see what it’s doing to you, and we were just kids, we couldn’t have helped Dad, but I’m not a kid anymore. I don’t have to sit helplessly by and watch you tear yourself to pieces and then lose yourself to alcohol to kill the pain. I care because I know what it was doing to me, when I was the one using alcohol to cope with having lost you. You want to know why I kept working with Ruby after she didn’t save you like she said she could? She’s the only reason I was alive for you to come back to. I can’t do this without you. I need you - and I need you, not the alcohol and rage zombie I’ve been trying to wait out to get my brother back. Please, Dean, it doesn’t have to be me, but you need to talk to someone. I won’t judge you.”

“No, you won’t, and that’s the problem. I was in Hell. The things I did down there... you should judge me for. You should turn away from me. I don’t know which would be worse, you turning away from me like you really should or you not turning away from me, sticking by me, when you shouldn’t. That’s the problem. Anyone I trust enough to open up to about this, I can’t deal with losing, and I would after this.”

“Dean...” Sam’s eyes were misty, and he had his very best kicked puppy look.

Dean drained the rest of the beer as he tried not to think about all the times Sam had looked at him like that in Hell and he’d kicked him anyway. “No. Don’t do that. Don’t look at me like that. Don’t look at me at all. I’m going to bed.” Dean looked contemplatively at the cooler, and then shook his head and got in bed. It was gonna be a bad night, but if Sammy would feel better if he stopped drinking now... he’d try.


	23. Wincest: "I need therapy after this."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning: NSFW.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Continued from this.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12887763/chapters/30815547)

Sam made it all the way home. No one stopped him, no one came after him, Dad was in Wisconsin or something... he was alone. Perfect. He could stew on the events of the party and just how fucked he was.

Someone daring them to kiss each other is exactly why Sam hadn’t wanted to play Truth or Dare with Dean and his friends. The walk home had helped with the issue, but thinking back to the kiss... Dean tasted like beer and buffalo wings and just the fact that Sam knew that for a fact was enough to set him off again. At least this time he was alone and he could do something about it.

It didn’t work as well as Sam hoped. As he worked, he tried to think of other people. Amy Pond the kitsune girl, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Megan Taylor from his English class, Caleb Johnson from his science class... but every time, his thoughts drifted back to Dean. It was Dean’s name he cried out as he finally spilled. “I need therapy after this,” he muttered to himself as he grabbed a towel to clean up with.

“Come on, Sammy, it can’t have been that bad.” Sam froze at the sound of Dean’s voice. “Only got here for the last little bit, but not hard to figure out the rest.”

“What are you doing here? I thought you’d still be at that party for hours!”

“Once I’d convinced Melissa and her friends that no, you didn’t run off because I’m that horrible a kisser, they made me go after you. I had the advantage of having the car, didn’t have to walk.”

“O-oh.” Shit. Sam curled in on himself. “In my defense, you started it. You could’ve just told them I was your brother and you’d kiss anyone else they wanted.”

“Yeah, but where’s the fun in that?” Dean sat on the edge of the tub and reached out to put a hand on Sam’s knee. “I wanted to kiss you. Truth or Dare just gave me the excuse to do it.”

“What?”

“Easier to miss, given you didn’t have your hand on my thigh and I’m enough older to have more control, but I’m totally into it. Into you. Would’ve said something, but until tonight, I never thought you’d have any interest, or even any reason to put up with me being a perv like this. If you don’t wanna do anything about it, I get it, but if you do... you’re not alone.”


	24. Dean & Sam: "A little gasoline... blowtorch... no problem."

Running for their lives had long since gotten old. At this point it was practically antediluvian. They didn’t stop until they got to the hotel, at which point Sam collapsed face-first on his bed and wouldn’t wake up. Dean let it go. He was too exhausted to do anything else either.

Of course, when he woke up twelve hours later and Sam hadn’t moved, but the blanket was an all-too-familiar dark reddish-brown, he regretted that. He checked - Sam still had a pulse, was still breathing, but he was frozen and there was no color in his face at all. Shit.

Dean got him tucked properly into the bed, along with the blankets from his - trap in as much of the little body warmth Sam was putting out as possible. When he got back with food and gatorade, Sam looked a little better, anyway. After forcing some of the gatorade down Sam’s throat, Dean went to extend their stay another night - Sammy was in no shape to go anywhere, and they weren’t in danger anymore.

When he got back, Sam’s eyes were fluttering. “Heya, Sammy, how you feeling?”

“I’m fine. Cold, but... a little gasoline, blowtorch... no problem.”

Dean glared at Sam, but he had to chuckle at the repetition of his words that had gotten them into this mess. “In my defense, how was I supposed to know that someone would have themself buried with a friggin’ BOMB that was gonna set off a fireball-charged vengeful spirit?”


	25. Sam: "Everybody keeps telling me you're the bad guy."

Sam didn’t know what to do with the fact that there was an angel staring at him like he was some sort of insect. The angels hadn’t exactly left much room for doubt when it came to how they saw him, and Sam did not want to deal with it right now. “Do you need something, Castiel?”

Castiel squinted at him. “Everyone keeps telling me you’re the bad guy.”

Sam rolled his eyes and followed Winchester tradition by grabbing a beer and drinking half of it in one gulp. “Yeah, I got that. Thanks. You and Uriel have made that abundantly clear.”

“I don’t understand, though. How can someone so beautiful, so strong and pure and faithful, be the bad guy? There must be a mistake somewhere.”

Sam paused, the bottle millimeters away from his lips. “What?”

“You can’t be the bad guy. Your soul is almost burning me with its light. I must investigate further.” And then Castiel was gone, leaving Sam very very confused.


	26. Sastiel: “Is there a reason you’re naked in my bed?”

Sam walked into his room, blinked a couple times, and then turned and walked right back out. He shook his head to clear it and walked back into his room. Nothing had changed.

“Is there a reason you’re naked in my bed?” he asked Castiel.

“Yes.”

Sam pinched the bridge of his nose. “Why are you naked in my bed?”

“I asked Dean for advice on how to...”

“Stop. Just stop.” Sam squeezed his eyes shut, now trying to control his laughter. “I thought you knew better than to listen to Dean by now.”

“Who else could I ask, though? I couldn’t ask you. Crowley? Rowena? Claire?”

“Jody?” Sam sat on the bed beside Castiel. “Ask the internet?”

Castiel sat up. “Was this ineffective? Have I not made my intent clear?”

Sam could not argue with that point.


	27. Dean & Jack: "You're a dork, just like your father."

Slowly but surely, Dean was coming around on Jack. Sure, the kid was insanely powerful and could kill them all without breaking a sweat, but it kinda seemed like maybe, just maybe, he’d become the exception to the rule of power corrupting.

It was hard to believe the being sitting at the foot of the bed staring at the television with his mouth hanging open watching cartoons was going to hurt anyone. “You’re a dork, just like your father.”

Jack barely glanced away. “Which one?”

“Not Lucifer.”

“I wasn’t counting him. Did you mean Castiel or Sam?”

That set Dean back. “Since when is Sam your father?”

Now Jack did look away. “When Castiel was dead, Sam took me in, gave me guidance, helped me learn to use my powers in a controlled and responsible manner. He believed in me and helped me learn from my mistakes. Castiel told me, after he came back, that if he’d had the chance he’d have told me to go to Sam if he couldn’t be there for me. How is he not my father?”

“I guess when you put it that way...” Dean shook his head. “They’re both dorks, but I meant Cas. He loves watching cartoons, too.”


	28. Viktor & Phichit: "You fell asleep in the tub?!"

Yuuri had warned Viktor about some of Phichit’s... odder habits. Of course, there was the constant social media stuff, but they all did that. Not to the extreme Phichit did, but whatever. There were the hamsters. Viktor wasn’t going to judge; after all, he was just as silly about Makkachin. There was the way a seemingly innocuous question meant Phichit going off on a ten-minute discussion of something completely unrelated. Like the time Viktor had asked Phichit how he got Yuuri to go to pole dancing lessons and walked away knowing about the inner workings of plants. Or the time Yuuri asked Phichit something about Celestino’s garden and ended up learning all the gossip from the latest season of “Game of Thrones.”

And then there was Phichit’s tendency to fall asleep in the most random places. Viktor didn’t quite believe that one until he got home from taking Makkachin for a jog and went to take a shower, only to find Phichit curled up in the tub completely zonked out. He was staying with them, and they had a perfectly nice guest bed he could sleep in, or a couch that Viktor could testify from personal experience was wonderful to sleep on - he’d taken many a nap there before Yuuri moved in, and even slept there some nights when getting up and going to his actual bed just seemed like too much work. Viktor found it hard to believe that Phichit was suffering from depression the way he had been, so...

He gently shook Phichit. “You fell asleep in the tub?!”

Phichit sat up and stretched, looking around. “Huh. Guess I did. Sorry about that, you probably want it.”

“Yes. Why were you sleeping in the tub?”

“Because... I was tired? I don’t know. Has Yuuri told you about the time Ciao Ciao called him to come get me from the gym because I’d fallen asleep on a weight bench?”

“He did, but I didn’t believe him.”

“Believe him.”

“Have you seen a doctor?”

“Yeah, my mom took me after she found me sleeping on the piano, and most of my coaches have made me go after the first time they heard about it. I’m not narcoleptic. I just... when I get sleepy, I find the nearest reasonably flat surface and sleep. This time it was the tub.”


	29. Casabriel: “It’s amazing how fast the world can go from bad to total shit storm.”

“It’s amazing how fast the world can go from bad to total shit storm.” Sam slammed the door to his bedroom, startling the two angels in it. “So get this. It’s not enough that Dean and I have been through the literal goddamn Biblical Apocalypse, the Leviathans, the release of the Darkness, and that’s ignoring all our personal shit. I thought Amara killed Lucifer. She didn’t. Lucifer’s free on the Earth again.”

“Oh, FUCK,” Gabriel said. He and Castiel exchanged terrified looks. “We, uh... Heaven’s on full alert right now. A Nephilim has been conceived, and we didn’t know who or where or how. Every angel alive has reported in, me and Cas about fifteen times apiece swearing that no, we have not knocked you up, you’re not even built for that. And every angel alive swears they either haven’t been with humans, haven’t been with humans who could conceive, or made sure that no conception took place.”

“All but one, apparently,” Castiel said. “Lucifer.”

“And trust me, we do NOT want my big bro’s kid running around down here unchecked. We need to find the mother of this baby and persuade her to either terminate the pregnancy or come here where I can take care of the kid. And then we gotta find a way to deal with Lucy, apparently.”

“I’m sorry. This is my fault. I should never...”

Sam cut Castiel off with a kiss, and Gabriel hit him with a wingsmack to the head. “Or this is my fault,” Sam said. “If I hadn’t gotten suckered by the visions Lucifer sent me, you wouldn’t have gone to the Cage to rescue me from him. If I hadn’t broken the Mark of Cain, the Cage would never have cracked and we wouldn’t have needed help with Amara. If Dean hadn’t taken the Mark of Cain, blah blah blah. Plenty of blame to go around, Cas.”

“Okay. Shitstorm outside, but Samshine, you look exhausted. We’re taking the night off. In the morning, we rally the troops, find Lucifer and his baby mama and do what we need to do. Deal?”

“Yeah. Gabe? This is probably...”

Gabe reached out and stroked Sam’s face. “I know. No wings, no Enochian, no using my grace to go beyond normal human means of loving you. Not with Lucy out there running free.”


	30. YuYuu: Alien Invasion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I was meant to only come to Earth to get information about humans so my race could figure out how to dominate the planet but I think I’m falling in love with my test subject, shit.”

Yuri kicked the computer in his lab. This was not how this was supposed to be working, dammit! He was one of the observers sent to Earth to figure out the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the race. His test subject was a strange contradiction, an athlete with the confidence that he could be among the best who kept sabotaging himself with doubt.

The invasion would be soon. And yet, Yuri found himself caring more about his test subject’s skating competition. They’d scheduled the invasion for the day humans celebrated a new year, and Yuuri’s competition was less than a month before. Yuri should be packing up, getting out, going home to await his next assignment, not adjusting his disguise to sneak out to watch in person.

This was Yuuri’s big chance, the culmination of the dream he’d been chasing half his life. Yuuri was obsessed with one of his competitors, and though Yuri didn’t see the appeal he couldn’t help sharing Yuuri’s excitement at the prospect of him actually meeting Viktor Nikiforov. The first half of the competition went well, Yuuri placing third over some annoying shit who called himself a king, and Yuri couldn’t wait to see the second part.

Yuuri fucked it up. Badly. So badly that Yuri broke the rules. He cornered Yuuri in the bathroom. “Hey. Why don’t you just give it up? Retire already. No one will want to watch you next season.”

“Who are you?”

“Oh, fuck. I’m someone who’s telling you to give this up, go home, spend the next month or so with your family and friends because you may not...”

“I can’t go home. Not yet. Not like this. I can’t face them, not after Vicchan, and this failure...”

“Go home now, or you may not ever get to. I shouldn’t be talking to you. I should be letting you figure out what to do next, but I can’t watch you sit around feeling sorry for yourself instead of getting a chance to say goodbye.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Let’s just say it doesn’t matter if you retire or not, next year there won’t be a skating competition for you to go to. If you’re one of the lucky ones, you might still have a home to go to. You should go now.”

“Huh?”

“I’ve said way too much already. I gotta go. Don’t be a moron. GO HOME.”

Yuuri didn’t listen. Instead, he went back to Detroit, kept training, competed in Japan’s nationals where he sucked even worse. Yuri went to him again, once again getting him alone in a bathroom. “Hey. You didn’t listen to me.”

“No. You were right, though, I guess I’m not skating next year.”

“You’re not. Come with me.”

“Where are we going?”

“I’ll explain everything later. Just know that this is pretty much your only hope. This time next week, everything you love will be gone, and you along with it unless you come with me now.”

“Huh?”

Yuri held out a hand. “Just come on.”

Yuuri stepped back. “No. I don’t know who you are, or why you’re threatening me.”

A week later, when the bombs fell across Hasetsu and Saint Petersburg and Detroit, Yuri couldn’t watch. He curled up alone in a bathroom on his ship and cried for the human he’d loved and tried to save.


	31. Sastiel featuring Meg: "He's a bad kisser."

Friends coming back from the dead was unfortunately common enough in Sam’s life that when he walked into the Bunker and spotted Meg, all he had to say was “Welcome back. How’d you get in here?”

“Clarence lowered the wards for me. Didya miss me?” Meg hopped off the table she was sitting on and smiled at him. “Gotta say, I love the new place. Suits you boys perfectly.”

“Thanks. Where’s Cas?”

“Dean dragged him off for an argument about him bringing me here. I’m waiting for the verdict on whether I can stay or not. So did you do what I asked? Did you take care of my unicorn?”

Sam sighed. “I tried, but he’s... he’s stubborn, and reckless, and I get it and all but it makes him difficult to take care of. I actually put him in the worst danger of his life when he had to rescue me from a mini-Cage and did so by letting Lucifer possess him.”

“Ew. That must’ve sucked. How long did it take you to catch on?”

Sam sighed. “Too long. Lucifer was good.”

“But you caught on in time not to kiss him, didn’t you? I know I probably don’t have to tell you this, but he’s a bad kisser.”

Sam gagged. “Don’t remind me. Please. Why would I kiss Cas, though?”

Meg reached out and smacked the back of Sam’s head. “Because you love him, you dope. He loves you too, you know.”

“What? Why... not me, he’s...”

“Sam, did you miss the part where I’m a demon and he loves me enough to stand up to Dean to bring me here? Name one thing you’ve done that makes you worse than actual hellspawn.” Meg crossed her arms. “I’ll wait.”

“If he loves you, and you obviously love him, then what does it matter what he feels about me?”

“He likes you better, Sam. You’re a better fit in his life. You’re not gonna cause problems with Dean. I’ve been dead for years, he’s moved on. I’m okay with all of that. What I’m not okay with is you being an oblivious dumbass. Go kiss the boy.”


	32. Casabriel: "How long have you been standing there?"

Gabriel did his best to save her, but it wasn’t enough. Only Lucifer or God could do it. Lucifer was dead and God was gone. Kelly was going to die. She didn’t have long, but she wanted to hold her son. “Jack, I wish I could be the one to raise you, but I can’t. Be good for your fathers, Jack. Their names are Gabriel, Castiel, and Sam. They’ll give you the love and guidance I can’t.” Her breathing became too labored to speak at that point, and she held the baby out to Gabriel.

They’d expected more trouble with Dean, but all Dean said about them taking in a Nephilim was that Gabriel needed to keep a good eye on him and be ready to smack him down if needed. Jack grew rapidly, and before they knew it, he was old enough to talk and walk and accidentally explode his Lego castle.

“Oops!” Jack looked up, eyes wide, as Sam hurried in. “Jack, what happened here?”

Jack looked back down. “I got mad. I couldn’t get Barbie to stand up in the tower I built her, and it... it just... I didn’t mean to! Please don’t be mad at me!”

Sam scooped Jack up into a hug. “I’m not mad! You know you’re not supposed to explode things, but this was an accident, wasn’t it?”

Jack sniffled. “Yeah.”

“Remember what we talked about, for when you get frustrated with something? How you need to take a step back and remind yourself that things will get better?”

Jack nodded solemnly. “I remember.”

“Good. Now why don’t you pick up the Legos, and put them away? Then you can start rebuilding the castle.”

“Okay!” Jack hopped to his feet and got to work.

Sam’s head snapped up at the “awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww” from the doorway. “Gabe? Cas? How long have you been standing there?”

Gabriel smirked. “Not long. Cassie and I heard the explosion and came to make sure everything was okay. Seemed like you had it under control, so I just watched you be the best human parent a Nephilim’s ever had.”

Sam got to his feet, blushing furiously. “To be fair, exactly how many human parents ever got the chance? Didn’t they all suffer Kelly’s fate?”

“Not all of them,” Castiel said. “The angel parent could prevent it if they were present for the birth and willing to bind their grace to the human during labor. Gabriel couldn’t save Kelly because he wasn’t the grace donor to create Jack.”

“No one ever died giving birth to my kid. Me included,” Gabriel said. “I’ll tell you, though, Cas, I’m still not quite over you killing my daughter.”

“You had kids?” Sam said.

“C’mon, Samshine, you know your Norse mythology! I’m Loki, in case you’ve forgotten?” Gabriel winked at him. “If we do a good job with Jack, he turns out well, I might just have to have another try at it. What are they gonna do to me in Heaven, kick me out?”


	33. Sastiel: "I just like proving you wrong."

Sam looked up at the knock. He didn’t recognize the woman standing there. “Hi? Can I help you?”

“Sam Winchester.”

“What about him?” Sam set his book down and turned more fully toward the door.

“You’re him.”

“And if I am...?” Sam prompted.

“My name is Elizabeth. I’m an angel. A friend of Castiel’s.”

Sam sighed and got to his feet. “If you’re here to tell me to break up with him or give me a shovel talk, save it.”

“I’m not here for either.” Elizabeth squinted at him, a move so reminiscent of Castiel that Sam had to smile. “Why would I want to talk to you about shovels? Why would you object?”

“The shovel you have that you’ll... you know what, never mind. Why are you here?”

“I’m here to thank you. Castiel’s been so much happier since you agreed to forgive him and let him love you. That happiness is making him a better soldier, and many of us are curious to see where this will lead. It’s been a long time since anything of this sort has happened, and never with someone so...”

“Tainted? Abomination?”

Elizabeth took two steps and got in Sam’s face. “Allow me to speak for myself, or I will remove your ability to speak at all.” Sam’s eyebrows shot up, but he held up his hands and took a step back. “Never with someone so unafraid of Heaven or its Host. Raphael is curious enough to sit back and watch this play out, even.”

“Oh. Well. I... guess that’s about as good as I’m going to get for approval by the family, so, thank you.”

Castiel made himself visible. “I told you so.”

“Cas? What the... did you send Elizabeth?”

“I wouldn’t have the authority to do so, since she’s Zachariah’s replacement as my superior. I simply told her that you had concerns that our relationship would cause problems for me in Heaven.” Castiel smiled. “I just like proving you wrong.”


	34. Dean & Sam: “You haven’t even touched your food. What’s going on?”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sequel to chapter 25.

“You haven’t even touched your food. What’s going on?” Dean stared at the plate of chicken and salad in front of Sam disapprovingly.

Sam shook his head. “It’s not like it’s not normal for me to just poke at my food, Dean. I do this a lot. We’ve talked about it.”

“Yeah, but usually, you’re at least poking at it, dude. Tonight you’re sitting there staring at it like it holds the answer to some great profound philosophical question. So, what gives? Because I’m pretty sure I’m smarter than a piece of cut-up grilled chicken.”

The little brother in Sam was too strong. “I’m not so sure of that. At least the chicken doesn’t run its mouth just to hear its own voice.”

“Ha! Got a smile out of you. Now come on. What’s eating you?”

Sam shook his head, but Dean had snapped him out of his funk. “It’s weird. Castiel came to talk to me last night.”

“Oh, shit. Need me to explain a few things to him?”

“No, no, he... he said he couldn’t believe that I’m supposed to be the bad guy. Something about my soul nearly burning him with its light. I don’t know. He’s kind of... mysterious? Sometimes.”

“Kind of, sometimes. Dude’s a weirdo. Why are you supposed to be the bad guy?”

Sam shrugged. “He didn’t say, just that everyone says I’m supposed to be the bad guy. What do you think? I mean, we do know Uriel thinks that, so...”

Dean shook his head and took a big bite of burger. “Well, if Cas likes you, maybe it’s not all bad up there for you. Don’t give up on God seeing it Cas’s way, huh?”


	35. Wincestiel: "Don't touch me.  We're fighting."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sequel to chapter 3.

“Don’t touch me. We’re fighting.” Sam swatted Dean’s hand off his shoulder. “What do you want?”

“It’s 2 am, dude. Go to bed.”

“In a bit.” Sam gestured to the book he was reading. “I’m reading about the Nephilim. They’re fascinating.”

“I’m sure they are, dude, but you need to go to sleep. Cas’ll be back to tell us what’s going on, and he knows Nephilim better than anyone in these books would. He’s actually met some.”

“There have been Nephilim since the drowning, Dean. This book?” Sam held it up. “Was written BY ONE. I think a Nephilim would know more about herself than an angel who didn’t want anything to do with them even before God decided they were out of control and needed to be banned.”

“Wow. Learn anything we can use?”

“Yeah, actually. If we can’t convince the mother to terminate the pregnancy, there’s still a chance for us. The baby will imprint on an angel... but it doesn’t have to be its real parent. If we can have Cas closer than Lucifer, the baby can imprint on him instead. It’ll still have the power of an archangel’s son, but it will take after Cas instead, and if there’s any angel I’ve ever met I trust to be a good role model for a Nephilim...”

“Yeah. That’s great. Hope Cas finds the mom and can convince her to trust him over Lucifer. Be best if we can find a way to take out Lucifer before the kid’s born, but I got nothing on that. We’ve tried so much.”

“Much as I hate to say it, we haven’t tried asking the British Men of Letters for help.”

Dean sighed. “I guess not. How long’s it gonna take you to forgive me?”

“You really need to learn to get the information first, then act. Questions first, shoot second. You’re not Dad. Cas loves us, we love him, you really should take a look at yourself and ask why you’re so willing to jump to the conclusion he’d cheat on us. We’ve seen, over and over, how much it takes for Cas to betray someone.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“Be sure and tell Cas when you talk to him.” Sam closed the book. “I’m going to bed. Good night.”


	36. Sastiel: “Why do you only kiss me when I’m sleeping?"

Sam blinked a few times as he slowly returned to consciousness. Castiel lay beside him, like always, but he’d backed away from how he’d woken Sam up - a soft kiss to the forehead followed by another on the cheek. “Why do you only kiss me when I’m sleeping? You know you’re allowed to kiss me, so why don’t you ever do it when I can kiss back?”

“That’s... kind of... the problem?” Castiel said. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I love kissing you, and I like it when you kiss me, but when we’re kissing each other at the same time it feels weird somehow. Am I doing something wrong?”

Sam furrowed his brow, looking at Castiel. “So when I kiss you goodbye, or hello, or whatever, that doesn’t bother you?”

“No. I enjoy that. It’s when it seems to be leading to more that I start getting uncomfortable.”

“All right. I don’t think you’re broken or that there’s something wrong with you, Cas. I think you might be asexual.”

“And that’s... not a problem?”

“Nope. Might be if you’d fallen in love with Dean, he’s pretty into the sex thing, but that would be a compatibility issue, not something inherently wrong with you. I have no problem with it.”

“Oh. Good.” Castiel leaned in, gently kissing Sam’s lips. “I love you.”


	37. Wincestiel: "I find that answer vague and unconvincing."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continuation of chapters 3 and 35.

Sam was sleeping when Castiel got back, which gave Dean the perfect chance to do this without a peanut gallery. “Hey, uh, Cas. Sorry about the other day. I was out of line, I know you wouldn’t, y’know. Go around creating a Nephilim with someone other than me or Sammy.”

“If you know I wouldn’t, then why would you accuse me of it, and physically accost me for it?”

“I dunno, man. Sam says it’s my shoot first ask questions later training from Dad, and that’s probably what it was.”

“Which means that it will happen again?”

Dean flinched. “I’m gonna try not to. You deserve better.”

Castiel turned to glare at him. “I find that answer vague and unconvincing. I do deserve better than to be mistrusted and mistreated by you, and the best you can say is ‘you’ll try’ to change?”

“I’m human, Cas. Mistakes happen. I know I gotta learn from them and do better in the future, but you of all people know how hard it is to stop thinking like the good soldier you were taught to be. I’m working on it, and not overreacting to things like this is a huge step, but I don’t want to promise you perfection and then fuck it up again. Okay?”

Castiel stared at Dean for an uncomfortably long time. “It is difficult, but if I can overcome eons of indoctrination and brainwashing and literal reprogramming, then you should be able to overcome two decades of your father’s training methods. You’re forgiven - but I will not forget. If it happens again, I will be much less forgiving. Where’s Sam?”

“Asleep still. You wanna go join him, you’re probably welcome. I’m not.”


	38. Sastiel: Don’t tell me not to worry, because I’m going to do that anyway.”

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sequel/fix-it to [this](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12887763/chapters/29523276).
> 
> Co-writing credit belongs to [LadyShadowphyre](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyShadowphyre/pseuds/LadyShadowphyre), and xir lovely comments that inspired this (and of course prompt).

Saying goodbye was hard. Bobby had been hard enough. Staring Cas in the face and saying goodbye, I’m going to Hell and you can’t come save me, that was going to be next to impossible. “Cas, don’t...”

“Don’t tell me not to worry,” Castiel said. “I’m going to do that anyway. Please don’t make me worry about you and go against your wishes. It’s going to be hard enough respecting your wishes and not divebombing the Cage with every angel I can muster.”

Sam laughed softly. “Okay. You can worry about me. It won’t change anything, you can’t help me and we can’t risk letting Lucifer out just to save me, but I hope you’ll find a way to go on. Heaven and this world both, they’re gonna need you.”

Saying goodbye to Dean was just plain impossible, so Sam didn’t bother. He chugged the blood, and let Dean walk him inside.

Lucifer took one look at Sam and let out a rather terrifying scream. “Are you kidding me?! All this work, all this effort, and... I cannot believe you came to Detroit to dangle yourself in front of me when I can’t do anything about it! And people call me cruel!”

Sam and Dean exchanged bewildered looks. “But... I came to say yes...” Sam ventured.

“I know that! It was always going to happen here and now! But no, you’ve gone and gotten yourself bonded, and you can say yes all you want, all I get out of it is the soundtrack to the world’s most annoying porno! You asshole, you...”

“Uh, all due respect to the homicidal raging maniac archangel, but... what the hell are you talking about?” Dean said.

“Castiel! The Little Angel who Couldn’t Leave Well Enough Alone just had to bond you to him, meaning that no one else can touch you! I can’t even kill you without destroying myself!”

Sam looked at Dean again. They didn’t need to talk to agree that it was time to leave. If Lucifer couldn’t kill them, or possess Sam so they could shove his ass back in the Cage, what was the point in staying to listen to an archangel throwing a temper tantrum like a two-year-old human?

Castiel and Bobby wore matching confused faces as the Winchesters returned. “What happened? I know Lucifer’s in there.”

“Castiel, did you know that marrying me would make it impossible for Lucifer to take me?”

Castiel’s eyes went wide, and he smiled. “It was a legend. Very old lore, so old that only the archangels and the very earliest-born angels would know if it was true. I didn’t want to get your hopes up, so I didn’t tell you, in case it was no more effective than wishing on a star.”

“Okay, but... what happens now? This was pretty much our only remaining option to prevent the Apocalypse, now Lucifer goes to the fight with the vessel he has instead of the vessel he wishes he had,” Sam said, causing Dean to snort.

“There may not be a fight.” Adam - no, Michael - reached out and put a hand to Sam’s forehead, and Sam fell to his knees at the surge of power through him. “Hmm. I see. This is a gamechanger.”

“What did you do to me? Lucifer said he couldn’t touch me!”

Michael tilted his head. “Of course he can touch you. He just can’t do you any harm. Only Castiel and Gabriel could hurt you now.”

“Uh, Gabriel’s dead, didn’t you hear?”

“No, he’s not. I know my little brother. He’s hiding somewhere. If he weren’t, Heaven would be a much bigger mess. Didn’t you ever wonder why I didn’t just kill Lucifer the first time around?”

“Because he’s your brother and you loved him and you couldn’t bring yourself to,” Dean snapped. “What’s that got to do with Gabriel?”

“I would have killed him, if it were possible. First, though, we had to detangle him from any trace of Heaven. It took millennia to purge him. We still need to settle on a replacement, but I think Dad’s made his candidate clear.” Michael shot a pointed look at Castiel. “Killing Gabriel would tear down Heaven. He’s alive, somewhere. He may have lost power, he may even have Fallen, but he’s alive.”

“So... what did you do to me?” Sam asked. Fascinating though the theology lesson was, and intrigued as he was by the possibility of Cas becoming an archangel, they had more immediate things to deal with.

“I purged the demon blood. No need to strengthen yourself, not to serve as Castiel’s vessel, and Castiel might not have mentioned it, but exposing himself to the sulfur taint of your blood is uncomfortable. Now it’s no longer necessary.”

Sam looked at Castiel. Castiel shrugged. “I wasn’t going to mention it. You bear enough guilt about something that is in no way your fault. It’s uncomfortable, not painful, and no longer an issue anyway.”

“Anyway, I need to go talk to my little brother. Might kill him, might not. Might just take him to Dad, if I can figure out where to go. Possibly just run off with him and fight it out away from the planet. Maybe just run off with him and not fight. I miss my little brother. Your world’s safe no matter what.”


	39. Swesson: Accidentally Witnessed kiss

A surprise meeting with Zachariah Adler was never a good thing. Dean Smith, rising star, youngest vice-president at Sandover, the chosen one if you believed the whispers among the other VPs and VP candidates, had never had the “pleasure” of being summoned to Adler’s office without warning. Until today.

Nervous was not the word to describe how Dean felt. Outwardly, he was calm, even made a couple jokes to his secretary Nancy about it. “Can’t show too much favoritism - you know he’s hauled Cass D’Angelo in four times in the last two months? Don’t worry, I’m fine.” Inwardly, though... if Adler had discovered his new hobby, he probably wouldn’t respect the boundary between company time and personal time.

Dean reported to Naomi, Adler’s secretary, and she sent him straight in. That had him even more terrified, because it meant either Adler was willing to wait around doing nothing for Dean, or drop whatever he was doing when Dean showed up. Neither boded well. “You wanted to see me, sir?”

“Dean! Hi! Come in, have a seat. Shut the door.”

Dean closed the door and took a seat in the chair nearer Zachariah’s desk. “What can I do for you, sir?”

“Dean, you know we encourage our Sandover executives to find a good, healthy balance between their work lives and their personal lives. We’ve been a bit worried about you, to be honest, so what I’m here to talk to you about hurts me more than I can possibly express.”

This was about Sam? That was a surprise. He decided to play dumb, for now, at least. “Sir?”

Zachariah sighed and leaned forward. “I’m all for you having a healthy love life, and finding a partner to support you outside of work. And don’t worry - this isn’t about you liking men. Sandover has no patience for people who’d sabotage an otherwise brilliant employee because of their sexuality. It’s Sam Wesson in particular.”

“With all due respect, sir, it’s within the parameters of ethics. He’s in IT; I’m marketing and sales. Rumor has it I’m under consideration to be head of the upcoming Detroit branch, and if that’s true, I can still take him with me. IT is considered outside the normal chain of command; even if he becomes head of IT he would be reporting directly to the home office, not to me. We work for the same company, but I have no authority over him. This should not be a problem.”

“It’s not that.” Zachariah pulled out a folder.

“How did you even find out, anyway?”

“Believe it or not, I have a life outside of Sandover too, Dean. I’m not surprised you didn’t see me, you were rather absorbed in kissing Sam, but we happened to choose the same bar to watch the game last night.” Dean froze, but Zachariah waved a hand. “Like I said, normally, this wouldn’t be a problem for us. We don’t care if you’re gay, or bi or whatever you identify as. We care that Sam’s your brother.”

“What.”

“You know you’re adopted, right?”

“Of course I know I’m adopted. There was a house fire when I was four years old, my parents died in it. I was rescued and Bobby and Ellen Smith took me in.”

“Your mother died, but your father didn’t. He’d taken your baby brother and run, never looked back. Changed his name from Winchester to Wesson.”

“No. No, this isn’t possible, I was almost five when this happened. Old enough to have some memories from before, and I’d remember a little brother.”

“That’s what we thought, too, but I talked to a psychiatrist. She said it wouldn’t be a surprise if your brain reacted to the trauma of losing your little brother by completely forgetting he existed.”

“Okay, but... how do you even know this?”

“You’ve heard the rumors about Detroit, we’ve been running background checks on the people we thought you’d want to take with you who haven’t already been vetted. We’d noticed that you and Wesson have become friends, so we were checking him out in case you were wanting to take him as head of IT. He’s certainly qualified. When we discovered he was your brother, we just assumed the two of you knew that and that’s why you became so close. Until last night, when I saw the two of you kissing.”

Dean scrubbed a hand over his face. He needed to talk to Bobby. “What exactly is the bottom line here, Mr. Adler?”

“No matter what I or anyone else personally thinks, what you’re doing is illegal. Until now, you’ve had the excuse that you didn’t know, but now that you do, either your relationship with Sam or your employment with Sandover needs to end. It’s your choice. You and Sam can still be friends, and I encourage you to connect to your brother on the basis of family, but you cannot remain romantically involved with your brother.” Zachariah handed Dean the folder. “This is copies of the evidence we found. If you don’t believe me, this should convince you; if Sam doesn’t know, you can convince him that you’re doing this for the right reasons.”


	40. Casson: Kiss in a dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Direct sequel to chapter 39.

Detroit was... not what Sam Wesson had expected it to be. He’d thought he was coming out here with a boyfriend, but then came the day where Dean invited him over for dinner and showed him a file folder. Inside were birth certificates, name change registries, adoption paperwork... the upshot of all of which was that Dean Smith, the man he’d been dating and falling in love with, was his brother. “Bobby said that when I started to forget, he thought it was best to just let me forget about you. I was dealing with enough, grieving my parents, if I could just forget you it would be easier on me. If I’d known... I’d have tried to find you, Sam. I mean it.”

“Dad never told me I had a brother, and I was only six months old. I didn’t remember anything. In my dreams, though... this... this feels right. I didn’t think much about it because I didn’t have a brother, but now... knowing this... it feels right.”

“Which puts us in quite the son of a bitch of a situation.”

“Yeah. Shame Dad’s dead so I can’t go beat some goddamn answers out of him about why he took me and ran and left you behind. God. I guess we break up now, but... shit.”

“Yeah, I know. It doesn’t really change much about how I feel, but... I can’t, knowing you’re my little brother, I can’t bring myself to...”

“I know. I get it. Does this change anything about me going to Detroit?”

“Nope. Adler straight-up said you’re qualified for the job even before I’m officially given my job and can start requesting staff, so you’re not getting it just because of nepotism. If you still wanna live together, the only thing this changes is how many bedrooms we need.”

 

That was six months ago. He and Dean had, after a bit of a settling-in period, adjusted to their new relationship as brothers rather well. They’d decided to live together anyway, and it was amazing. Sam was never going to forgive his father for making him grow up without his brother.

His dreams had changed, now that he knew, and it was painfully obvious that in the dream reality, he and Dean had grown up together and were so brothers it hurt. On the other hand, Cass D’Angelo - Dean’s best friend and chief branch accountant - had started showing up. In the dreams, he was an angel, something which was getting him no small amount of teasing from his brother. “Dude, you and Cass would be great together. Go for it. And don’t you dare use me as an excuse, either way. Cass was the closest thing I had to a brother until I found you.”

“Closer than Jo?”

“Jo’s my sister, that’s different.”

The thing was, in the dreams, Cass - Castiel - didn’t seem to like him much. Tonight, though...

Sam had been badly wounded, nearly bled to death by ghouls. Castiel had come flying as soon as Dean called. He could heal the wounds, but he couldn’t replace the blood. Once the wounds were healed, Castiel glared at him. “Why didn’t you call for me sooner?”

“You’re Dean’s guardian angel, not mine, you don’t owe me anything, and I had faith in Dean to get here in time to save me.”

“You are an idiot. I would come when you call, except that you never do! I can’t come to you when you’re in distress if you don’t let me know. I’ve tried to use a warning system like I do with Dean, but you carry so much pain with you... it doesn’t work. Please, Sam. Let me help you. You have so much on your shoulders, and I can do nothing to help, and it is killing me.”

“You even care?”

“I love you, Sam. It’s not what angels are supposed to feel, even for those under their charge. Please. Tell me what I can do to help you, and then let me do it.” Castiel leaned forward and kissed Sam. He was still trying to formulate a response when his alarm went off.


	41. Casson: Kiss under a full moon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Direct sequel to chapters 39 and 40.

“Well. This is awkward.” Cass lowered the blade he was using - something long and silver and really cool-looking.

“I’ll say!” Dean lowered the gun he was holding. “If I’d known that this is why you left early on Friday, I’d’ve told you to wait an hour. Could’ve carpooled and saved the gas money!”

Cass blinked and looked at Sam, who shrugged and put away his own gun. “We, uh. Dean and me, we hunt things. Save people. It’s… kind of our family business?”

“I see. Next time, I’ll be sure to tell you the truth, then, Dean. Even if we end up going on different hunts, at least you’ll know where I really am and if I’m late on Monday you’ll have a better idea why.”

“I’ll be calling to check up on you, too. Where’d you get the blade?”

Cass twirled his blade, making it gleam under the full moon. “It’s an angel blade, according to family lore. My mother gave it to me and said it had been passed down from parent to child all the way back to the angel I’m named for.”

“You’re named for an angel?!” Sam said. He immediately clapped a hand over his mouth. “Sorry, that… it’s just… Castiel?”

“Yes, actually. The schoolyard teasing was bad enough with Cass, people assuming that it must be a girl’s name. Why is that surprising?”

Sam took a deep breath. “Okay, this is going to sound crazy, but I swear it’s true. I have these dreams, about a world where instead of working for Sandover, Dean and I are full-time hunters. And, um… since we came to Detroit, you’ve been in them, too. In the dream, you’re an actual angel. Castiel.”

Dean grinned. “Now tell him about that one last week where he yelled at you for not calling him when you were dying and kissed you.”

“Dean!”

“I kissed you when you were dying?”

“Yeah, um, in the dreams you don’t seem to like me much, but apparently you love me? So…it’s just dreams, I don’t…”

Dean groaned. “Cass, now will you tell my idiot brother that you’ve been in love with him this whole time?”

Cass stared at Dean like a deer in headlights. “Um… I think you just did it for me… why?”

“Because you two idiots would never talk to each other without me! I’m going back to the hotel. Sammy, I don’t want to see you tonight, understand?”

Sam shot Dean a bitchface, which he ignored to get in the Prius and take off. Sam sighed and turned to Cass. “I am so, so sorry about him.”

“At least he seems to approve…?” Cass shook his head. “I probably wouldn’t ever have said anything, but he’s not wrong.”

“He’s not?”

“No. I… made the mistake of telling Dean about it when he said he wanted me to be his second-in-command here, so that he’d know about any conflict of interest. At the time, I thought he was your boyfriend.”

Sam snorted. “At the time, we were still in the awkward stage of ‘we-used-to-date-and-can’t-just-shut-the-feelings-off-but-we’re-brothers-so-we-can’t-be-together-either.’ I’m glad we’re over it, but I can easily see where you were confused.”

“Anyway, that’s why I’ve always been so awkward around you. I guess it’s probably just as well you know, if we’re talking about maybe hunting together…”

“Well, um, I kinda have a crush on you, and Dean’s been encouraging me to do something about it… and in my dreams, as soon as I discovered Dean and I were brothers out here, things in there made so much more sense. So I kinda trust them… and in there, I was ridiculously gone on you.” Sam came toward Cass, reaching up to touch his face. “Can I kiss you?”

“Sure.” Cass stretched up to meet Sam for the kiss. When he pulled back, he was smiling. “That certainly felt right.”

“It did… except for one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“We should probably do something about the werewolf corpse and get out of here before someone comes to investigate the gunshot.”

“Oh. Yes. That… would put quite the damper on things.”


	42. Leoji: “I wish he/she was as talented on the ice as he/she is with the cello...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From Genevieve: Here’s a YOI idea:
> 
> \- “I wish he/she was as talented on the ice as he/she is with the cello...” Person A murmurs to their S/O (person B) as they, as well as friends and family, watch their child play the cello beautifully. (Any pairing would be okay, but it would be preferred if the pairing was one like phichimetti, LeoJi, etc.)

Since he was very little, Guang Hong had always wanted someone who would look up to him. At first it was a little brother or sister, but that wasn’t going to happen and he eventually accepted it. Then it became a child. The specifics would change – one day it would be a little girl he could teach to dance, the next a boy who loved action movies as much as Guang Hong did – but there were a few things that remained consistent. All of his imaginary children loved the ice.

When he realized he was gay, he started worrying about the dream of having a child being impossible, too. Then he met Leo. When they got serious enough that Guang Hong was planning to move to America permanently, the two of them sat down together to talk about the future. After discussing everything from religion to finances to pets, Leo had one more thing. “How do you feel about adopting kids?”

“We can do that?”

“Yeah, we can do that. We couldn’t in China?”

“No. With as few kids as there are being born in China these days, they’re cracking down a lot on adoption, and we wouldn’t qualify.”

“Huh. So how do you feel about it?”

“Yes please!”

 

They’d waited until they were both settled from their skating careers, and then they started the application process. They ended up matched with a beautiful four-year-old girl named Iris first, and then a couple years later, another girl, Celeste. Both girls were amazing, and Guang Hong loved them both, but there was one disappointment. Iris hated ice skating. She hated anything to do with the cold. Celeste liked skating, but it didn’t take long to figure out that she was never going to be an Olympian.

He made sure that the girls both knew that it was okay for them to follow their own interests and talents. Iris was really good at math, which amused Leo. “I sucked at it in high school. I never could keep track of my points during a program. The best I could do is ‘quad toe loop more points than triple flip’. Once Iris hits algebra, I’m not gonna be able to help her.”

“And I’m a disappointment to racists everywhere. I never really struggled with math, but I was never going to get into the advanced levels, either.” Leo snickered. “I bet Iris will.”

Celeste, on the other hand, inherited Leo’s musical talent, although her tastes were different. Like many middle-class girls in America, Celeste got piano lessons. Then she asked for violin lessons. When she got into middle school and joined the orchestra, she switched to the cello, and it was there that she found her real love.

By high school, she was in private lessons. When Iris graduated from high school, Leo and Guang Hong hosted a huge party for her. Family members came in from as far away as some of Leo’s cousins in Mexico and Guang Hong’s parents from China, and a lot of their friends came. Phichit, in particular, absolutely refused to miss it.

At the party, they’d asked Celeste to perform. Celeste had eagerly agreed, on the condition that she did not have to play “Pomp and Circumstance”. She’d worked with her teacher to choose some good music, and Guang Hong noticed Leo’s eyes getting a little watery. “I’m so proud of her. I just wish she were as talented on the ice as she is on the cello.”

It worked, as Leo snorted and did his best to control the laughter so he wouldn’t interrupt Celeste’s performance.


	43. Mila & Sara: Bet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for YOI Spring Fling Day 5 - Celebrations
> 
> Prompted by LizAgnaGirl51 - prompt in the end notes

It was a silly bet, one that Michele was trying to find a way out of for Sara. Sara wouldn’t say she was looking _forward_ to this, but she’d lost the bet fair and square, and there was no way she was backing out of her punishment.

She and Mila had a bet. It was widely acknowledged that the gold and silver medals were going to Cathy Tanaka and Raisa Sobchak, while opinion was split on whether Sara or Mila would take the bronze at Worlds this year. Mila had challenged Sara to a bet – chances were good that whichever of them didn’t get the bronze would be asked to skate in the exhibition anyway, since they were both very popular skaters. Whoever got the bronze got to pick what the other skated. If Cathy or Raisa messed up and both Sara and Mila medaled, they both skated their normal exhibitions.

Sara had tried her hardest, and she was in second after the short program. That wouldn’t last, Raisa was too close and had too high a base value. On the day of the free skate, Sara had just enough trouble with her jumps to put her below Mila.

Michele thought she was crazy. Sara agreed. Mila had given her this skate, though, and she was going to have fun with it. Mila even had a costume prepared for her. It was silly, and Sara loved it. At least there weren’t feathers to get everywhere. Michele had started his rampage when he saw it and Sara told him what she and Mila had agreed to, but really, what was he going to do about it? Never speak to her again? That wouldn’t last more than a month, and only a month if Emil got involved in trying to force the issue.

Sara had never thought she’d see the day someone skated The Chicken Dance as an exhibition skate celebrating at Worlds. And yet, here she was, dressed as a baked chicken, flapping her arms and strutting around the ice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> LizAgnaGirl51: Here’s an idea: Sara and Mila have a bet and whoever loses the bet has to skate to the [Chicken Dance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5sIspLfmXM) at the next competition while wearing [a chicken costume!](https://sep.yimg.com/ay/yhst-50296419239695/cfd315-food-costume-turkey-chicken-costume-5.gif)


	44. Georgi/Mila/Minami: Soulmate Hair

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 18\. If you dye your hair, your soulmate’s hair color changes as well.

The first time it happened, Georgi was a little confused. Not much, but a little. One minute his hair was its normal black, and then suddenly it was bright green. So he did have a soulmate. He’d dyed his hair orange one time when he was sixteen, just to test it, to see if anyone he knew turned up with orange hair. No one did.

When he got to the rink the next day, there was a lot of staring and pointing. Yakov looked away from where he was talking to Yuri. “Oh for… you must be joking. Really?”

“What? I didn’t do this, my soulmate did,” Georgi said. He didn’t see what Yakov was so upset about. Sure, green hair was unusual, but it was also a good choice for someone testing to see if their soulmate is around, so it would probably be gone in a few days. It’s not like they were in the middle of a competition where Georgi’s hair suddenly conflicted badly with his costume’s colors. This was going to look horrible with the Carabosse costume if it wasn’t gone by skating season.

“I know! That’s not the problem, although I hope she’s got the sense to get rid of it quickly. It looks horrible on you both.”

“Hey!” Mila popped up from behind the rink, and _oh_. That explained Yakov’s reaction. Her hair was bright green as well, an identical shade to Georgi’s. “I look fantas…” Mila trailed off as she noticed everyone staring at Georgi and turned to look. “Whoa. Okay. I was not expecting that. Yakov’s right, green is so not your color. It’ll wash out in a couple days.”

“What do you want to do about this?” Georgi asked.

“Find Anya and yell at her for breaking my soulmate’s heart, for one thing. Things that are actually reasonable… meet up and talk about it this afternoon over coffee?”

 

They ended up dating. Their rinkmates were a little weirded out by it, but quickly got used to having a couple around, since Georgi and Mila were good about keeping the PDA to a minimum. Even Yakov wasn’t too bad about it, although Yuri kept threatening to move to South Africa to get away from gross older people.

Yuri was the one to alert Georgi to his new hair color. When Georgi got to a mirror, he just took a minute to stare. The blond, he could deal with. It didn’t suit him, but it wasn’t that big a deal. The red streak in the front, that was weird. Mila already had red hair, why would she dye it a different red? Especially this red. It looked ridiculous, like someone had dipped his head in ketchup.

When Mila got to the rink, she marched up to Georgi. “I’ve seen your costumes for this season. What are you thinking with this hair?”

“I didn’t do this! I didn’t even think about your costumes, I just assumed you’d done it, since my hair changed to match. What is happening here?”

“Good question. We have another soulmate out there?”

“Huh. I wonder who.”

A few days later, their hair was still yellow and red. They’d have dyed it back, if they could agree which color to dye it back to – they couldn’t both go natural until whoever’d done this did, and they didn’t seem to be inclined to.

One day, Yuri came in and handed Mila his phone. “I think I found him. Check it out.”

“Who is this?” Mila asked, showing Georgi the photo of the boy with the red and blond hair. It matched his costume nicely, at least.

“I don’t know, but I know who you can ask. He was at the piglet’s regional competition. Can’t believe he did so bad last year he has to compete in regionals this year, but he did. Yuuko said this kid’s a fan of Katsudon’s, so I bet Viktor will be able to give you a name. Maybe even contact information.”

 

Viktor delivered, through Yuuri, and Georgi and Mila made contact one afternoon. Minami looked very surprised to see their hair. “Wow! Yuuri told me to expect a call from Russia, but he didn’t say why. But your hair!”

“Exactly. We may be getting into hair wars, because this looks terrible with both of our costumes.”

“Oh, well, it’s not like we’re likely to compete at the same time! Unless I go to Worlds…”

“Our Nationals are at the same time. We probably don’t actually skate at the same time, but close enough that the hair could be a problem.”

“We’ll figure it out! So I guess you guys are my soulmates?”

“Yes, we are,” Mila said, a smile forcing its way out despite her best efforts. “We’ve known about each other for a couple months now.”

“The green hair, right? That was one of you? Oh, and the orange hair when I was little! Mom has pictures she took so I wouldn’t forget to be on the lookout for my soulmate. Sorry for introducing myself to you by starting a hair war!”

Mila blinked. “Orange hair? I guess I must not have noticed…”

“You’d have been about seven,” Georgi said.

“That probably explains it. When I was seven, my big brother thought it would be funny to shave all my hair off.” Mila leaned into Georgi. “Come to think of it, we did notice it was growing in a weird color, but as it grew it faded to my normal red. Must’ve been then.”


	45. Otayuri: Scar/Flower Tattoo Soulmate AU

Birthmarks were hardly unusual. Yuri loved his. The violet tulip marking the palm of his right hand told him that he was special enough to have a soulmate. Very few people did. Conventional wisdom held that soulmates were either destined to produce something so much greater together than either could alone, or that one or both of them were so difficult to love and yet so deserving of it that the universe stepped in to get them what they should have. Yuri wasn’t entirely sure he believed that, but then again, he’d never actually known anyone who’d met their soulmate.

He’d met people with soulmates. Viktor Nikiforov’s feet were a mess of tiny sakura blossoms and roses, along with scattered flowers on his hands, knees, elbows, and forearms. Whoever his soulmate was, they were either clumsy or into something dangerous or that put a lot of abuse on the body. Yuri’s tattoos, aside from the large tulip on his hand, followed a similar pattern. Lots of tiny tulips and lilies covered his feet, most so small he could barely identify them, many marred by his own scars from blisters and cuts.

If there was anything to conventional wisdom, Yuri decided it was because he was hard to love. He didn’t need anyone’s help to become the greatest skater ever on ice. He was surly, had anger issues, didn’t really trust anyone but his coach, his grandpa, and his cat, and there was a reason the closest thing he had to a friend was Mila. Whether he deserved love, well… Yuri wasn’t sure he wanted to deal with it. Not after watching Georgi and Mila go through heartbreak after heartbreak.

It would be different with a soulmate, though, wouldn’t it? A soulmate was supposed to be your other half, the person who fit so well into your life that you couldn’t imagine it without them once they were there. He’d never liked the idea of a soulmate making him complete, he thought he was perfectly complete all on his own, but you never knew. Maybe he just didn’t realize what was missing. At least he knew there was someone out there to be looking for.

Finding his soulmate was a matter of finding someone whose scars matched his tattoos and vice versa. He’d gotten into the habit of looking at everyone’s right hand when he met them. So when Otabek held out a hand to him, with the words “Are you going to become friends with me or not?”, Yuri’s glance at it was automatic even as his hand came up to shake it. He stopped halfway there with a gasp, turning Otabek’s hand up.

Otabek looked down at it, a sort of resigned look in his eyes. “I know. Ugly, isn’t it? It doesn’t hurt anymore, just looks bad because of the awkward way it grew. I was two when it happened – my family was camping, and I dropped a metal toy into the campfire. Not knowing any better, I used a stick to push it out and then picked it up.”

“That’s… two, you said? And you’re eighteen?”

“Yeah.”

“So this happened before I was born.” Yuri exhaled sharply, gently brushing his fingers over the scar. This was happening. He was meeting his soulmate. Probably. Between Otabek remembering him all these years later and the tattoos, Yuri believed.

Otabek gave him an odd look. “Yes. The scar is older than you. What about it?”

“Look.” Yuri turned his right hand so that the palm was up, facing Otabek. “I was born with this.”

Otabek took Yuri’s hand, looking hard at the tattoo and comparing it to the scar. “No wonder it grew so oddly. Look.” He put their hands side by side, and Yuri saw right away what Otabek meant. The outline of the scar matched the tattoo almost perfectly. “I’m guessing your feet look very similar to mine – lots of tiny scars and tattoos?”

“Yeah. I can’t believe this is happening here. I expected this to be a big deal, but finding my soulmate and then doing my best to kick his ass in the biggest competition of our careers so far? That’s just weird.”


	46. Minami: His Dark Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt from DiamondSky  
> Probably a little dark but here it goes:   
> Minami tried to kill himself because his parents abused him for not following in his footsteps. He still has the gun he bought to use. What stopped him from pulling the trigger was thinking about how much he would hurt his fans. He would’ve kept the secret hidden, until someone (it can be whoever you want) found his gun and demanded a full explanation.   
> That’s when he tells him about his parents.
> 
> Tags: child abuse, emotional abuse, deliberately inflicted illness, attempted suicide, guns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE be sure to read the tags in the chapter summary! This one is *very* dark (for me, anyway)!

Minami Kenjirou was known to be one of the most positive, enthusiastic, and generally happy skaters on the ice these days. He never had a bad word to say about anyone in skating, openly fanboyed on his heroes, and the joy he brought to the ice spread throughout the crowd. Nearly everyone enjoyed seeing his name on the list of people they would be competing against, because he would make it fun. The fans loved him – he wasn’t quite Viktor Nikiforov or Katsuki Yuuri or Christophe Giacometti level famous, but he’d had dedicated fans since he was in novices.

When Yuuri retired from skating for real, he took a year off to cheer on his friends and spend some time in Hasetsu and adopt a child with his husband. Then Kenjirou got a call. “I hear that your coach is looking to get out of coaching. Have you decided what you’re going to do?”

“No, not yet. She only told me a couple weeks ago, and I haven’t really wanted to think about it until after Worlds. Do you have a recommendation?”

“Actually, I have a proposition. I’m going to be working with Viktor, and we’re planning to split coaching duties between us. If you’re willing to take a chance on a new coach, I’d like to invite you to come skate for me and Viktor.”

“Let me think about it… yes. I would love that.” Kenjirou couldn’t quite hold back the squeal of glee, but he could at least keep it to a volume that wouldn’t destroy his coach-to-be’s ears. “When do you want me in Saint Petersburg?”

“We’re planning on splitting time between Saint Petersburg and Hasetsu – we’re doing a month-long training camp in Hasetsu in June that all of our students will be going to and other skaters will be welcome at. So you can come to Saint Petersburg in April or May, or you can just meet us in Hasetsu. Talk to your family and your coach and let us know when you’re coming and I’ll come out and help you pack.”

 

True to his word, Yuuri came out at the end of April to help Kenjirou pack to move to Russia. While going through the closet, Yuuri pulled out a box that Kenjirou had forgotten about but recognized immediately. “What’s this?” Yuuri asked.

“It’s nothing. It’s not coming with me. I’d forgotten I had it. I really should get rid of it.” Kenjirou took the box from Yuuri, but in the process of putting it back where it belonged, the lid fell off and the pistol was clearly visible.

“You’re not secretly part of the Yakuza, are you?” Yuuri said after an uncomfortably long silence.

Kenjirou wished it was that easy to explain. “No… my older brother’s brother-in-law is. I stole this from him a couple years ago.”

“Why?”

Kenjirou picked up the gun, and just the feeling of it in his hand brought back so many emotions from that day. The hopelessness, the pain – both physical and emotional, the fear, the anger, the determination. One shot, and it would all be over. It probably wouldn’t even hurt for long, and if it did, well, it couldn’t hurt that much worse than he’d been hurt already. “My parents have never supported my skating. They wanted me to be like them, like my brother. Go to university, get a medical degree, be a respectable doctor instead of a flighty athlete. If it weren’t for my grandparents setting up a trust for me that they could not touch, I wouldn’t have been able to afford skating. They wouldn’t have paid for the traveling and the coaching and the rinktime and the costumes and everything else.

“They hated that I had that way around them. They really hated that I was doing well. They couldn’t keep me from skating, but they could try to make me quit. I had a reputation for never responding to anything on social media, just putting my stuff out there, and that was because my parents would have cut me off completely if they thought I was making friends online. I wasn’t allowed to have friends here.

“When I won that bronze at Nationals the year you collapsed, things started getting really bad. I think my parents were scared that I really was going to make it. The JSF wanted to send me to Four Continents that year, but my coach told them that I wasn’t ready for international competition at that level, remember that?” Yuuri nodded. “The truth was that my dad told my coach he knew how to make me too sick to compete, and if he saw me on the list for Four Continents or Worlds, he’d do it. Then, the next year, silver at Nationals, beating both of the people who’d beat me the year before, the JSF refused to accept excuses. My dad…”

Yuuri’s eyes got huge. “You had to withdraw from Four Continents because you were sick. Your dad did that to you?”

“Yeah. I couldn’t even train for two weeks. When I got better enough that I could get out, I went to visit my brother, and while we were there, we went to visit his wife’s brother. I was looking for something, I don’t remember what now, and I found that gun. It felt like a way out. I wasn’t planning to use it when I took it, not specifically, but just knowing it was back here was helpful.

“Then I got assigned to the Grand Prix. Dad wasn’t happy about that, told me to forget it because I wasn’t going, and I came up here and dug out the gun. I had it up to my head when my cell phone told me I had an email, and I figured I could check that and see what it was. It was a letter from a fan, telling me how much I meant to him and how he wanted to skate against me some day, and when I was reading it, all I could think about was the words I shouted at you when we skated against each other. I couldn’t go through with it then, knowing that I meant that much to someone the way you do to me.

“I ran away. Went to my brother, told him everything, including that I had a gun and where I’d gotten it. He took me home and ripped Mom and Dad to shreds. He told them he’d borrowed a gun from his brother-in-law and planted it somewhere in the house, and if I missed another competition for illness, he’d call the police and tell them exactly where it was. He also told them to let me start being properly active on social media. I know everyone thinks that happened because I turned eighteen, but it happened because my brother made my parents realize they’d already lost me and if they didn’t stop what they were doing they’d lose him, too. Things got a lot better the last couple years. Not perfect, especially at first when habit kicked in, but now things are pretty good. I’d forgotten all about this being here. Still grateful to get out of here.”


	47. Sastiel: Roommate AU + Fake Married

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Trope Mash-Up](https://rodiniaorzetalthepenquin.tumblr.com/post/174618324821/fanfiction-trope-mash-up)  
>  12\. Roommate AU + 49. Fake Married

“Cas, I need your help. Please? Just hear me out, I know it’s gonna sound ridiculous and awful and it’s really not something I should be asking anyone for let alone you, but…”

Castiel reached out and put his hands on Sam’s shoulders. “Stop. Breathe. Nice big deep breath.” Sam obeyed. “Again.” Sam obeyed. “One more.” Sam shifted into a bitchface, but obeyed. “Okay. Now. You need my help. What do you need?”

“Okay, so, there’s this girl Becky who’s been harassing me, and she wouldn’t leave me alone at the bar tonight, and Dean was so not helping, so I told her I was married. Dean knows it’s bullshit, but Becky demanded to meet her, and I kind of panicked and anyway on Tuesday will you come to the bar with me and pretend to be my husband?”

Castiel tilted his head. “Husband. You couldn’t go for boyfriend, which would be much easier for me to come up with a reason Becky’s never heard of me or seen me with you before. That would be too easy?”

Sam ran a hand through his hair, and Castiel forced back the jealousy. It was ridiculous, getting jealous of Sam touching his own hair. “Like I said. I panicked. Besides, the reason’s covered, you’re ex-Air Force and spent the last year in Iraq. Which is true. Before that, you were stationed overseas so we were in a long-distance relationship, which, again, is true without the relationship part. First thing we did when you got back from Iraq was to get married, because you nearly died and I freaked out at the thought of being an Air Force widow without ever having been a husband.”

“For someone who was panicking, you were able to come up with something very logical.”

“No, Dean did most of the work there,” Sam said, ducking his head. “And, well, it is mostly true anyway…”

Castiel shook his head. “Okay, I’ll do it, but there’s one condition.”

“Okay…”

“Seeing as panic apparently led you to decide that I was your husband, you don’t get to kick me out of the apartment when I ask you out.”

Sam blinked. And again. He shook his head rapidly and blinked one more time. “What?”

“You can say no, but I get to stop being afraid of the worst-case scenario, where you freak out and decide that you can’t live with me knowing that I’m interested in you.”

“Dude, that was never gonna happen. You should know better. Remember my college roommate Brady? He liked me, wanted to date me, but Dean said he was a demon in disguise and I trusted his judgment – and when he turned out to be right and Brady showed his true colors, _that’s_ when I kicked him out of our apartment. Dean loves you, so I’m not worried. I just didn’t think you were into… romance at all, honestly.”

“Usually, no, but there are exceptions. Balthazar. You.”

“You and Balthazar were together?”

“No, but not for lack of interest on my part. It’s just that I asked him to commit to being only with me, and he didn’t feel he could do that, so we agreed it was best not to try.”

“Ouch, yeah, you’re probably right,” Sam said. “So… is it bad form to ask someone out when they’ve declared their intention to ask you?”

“Possibly. So I’d better ask you out before you can do something so terribly rude. Sam, would you like to go get dinner together on Saturday? On a date?”

“I would love to.”


	48. Michemil: What Do You Mean Our Kid's Not Us?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pairing A has a hard time wrapping their head around the fact that their teenage child doesn’t want to follow in their footsteps, and they get it into a heated argument, with their child storming out of the house. Eventually, their mentor figure gives them advice and helps them embrace the idea, and eventually their child comes back and everything is alright! - prompt from Lucy

When Stefano stormed out, Michele’s first instinct was to go after him. Who knows what could happen, with him all worked up like that? Emil held him back. “He’s probably going to Stella’s to whine. He’ll be back when he’s calmed down, Mickey. If you go after him, you’ll just make it worse.”

The knock caught them both by surprise. Michele’s heart pounded – Stefano wouldn’t bother knocking, neither would Stella, had something happened to his son? Seeing Celestino didn’t exactly ease his mind. “What are you doing here, Coach Cialdini?”

“Here in Florence? Visiting my daughter and her family. Here at your house? Your son came to my granddaughter in tears, and I offered to come talk to you on his behalf.”

“You’re taking his side?!” Michele said. “You’re a coach!”

“Yes, I am, and a former skater myself, and my daughter and granddaughter both skate, I’m aware. The thing is, Diana and Stella chose that – at least, Diana chose to skate, she never seriously said anything about quitting, I don’t know about Stella but I’d like to think Diana knows better.”

“So you’d have just let Diana quit?”

“Yes. Yes I would. If she were serious about it, not just in one of those phases where it’s hard work and you’re not seeing the progress you were hoping for and reminding yourself that you can always just quit is a good way to motivate yourself to keep working, I’d have told her to do what made her happy. I’m a coach, one who does a lot of work with younger skaters. When I hold a camp, I can tell within a day who’s there because they love skating and can’t imagine themselves doing anything else, and who’s there because someone is telling them they’re not allowed to quit. They’re the ones who complain, who don’t want to work, who aren’t willing to put in the effort it takes to get to whatever the next level is for them. Is that what you want for Stefano?”

“He’s fifteen. He’s moody. He doesn’t know…”

Celestino raised an eyebrow, causing Michele to shut up. “How old were you when you knew you wanted to skate? Your parents weren’t skaters, you didn’t have that pressure on you, so how old were you when you knew that skating was worth the hours of practice every day and the pain and the injuries and the costs your parents were having to pay for you until you could get enough sponsorship?”

“Nine,” Emil said. “Mickey?”

“Twenty-two. Or seven, depending on how you look at it, but…”

“Seven when Sara knew she wanted to, and twenty-two when you finally figured out that you could do this for yourself instead of for her?” Emil said. Michele nodded.

“So fifteen should be plenty old enough to know that Stefano doesn’t want that. Have you actually talked to him about it, or have you told him he’s skating and that’s that?” Celestino asked.

“Of course I’ve…”

“Have we, though?” Emil asked. “Mickey, Celestino’s got good instincts, but not so good that he’d be here without hearing more than ‘I don’t want to skate anymore.’ I don’t know what Stefano would have said, do you?”

Michele opened his mouth, but shut it when he realized that no, he didn’t know what Stefano could have said to convince Celestino to come over here. “Fine. After ten minutes, you know my son better than I do. Why are you so sure he doesn’t want to skate anymore?”

“He has a dream of his own, that has nothing to do with skating, and he’s done the research or talked to people enough to have a plan to achieve it. If he quits skating, that makes it easier for him to achieve his dream, because the hours he’s having to devote to practice can be put to use working toward his dream or enjoying a more normal adolescence than you or I ever had, and the money spent on coaching and rink fees and costumes and travel can be saved and put toward school. He doesn’t have all the answers yet, but he’s got enough that I’m convinced he’s serious about this dream.”

“What’s his dream?” Michele asked, and then he realized. Celestino had a very good point, if Michele was asking that question. “Never mind. We… he should tell us that himself. Tell him we’ll hear him out. Let him convince us.”

 

“So that’s it,” Stefano said. “I want to be an astronaut, or at least, work for the ESA. It’s going to take a lot of work and I know it, that’s not what I’m afraid of with skating, it’s just… I don’t have the passion for skating like you two did, like Aunt Sara did. I do have that passion for space exploration.”

“I can see that,” Michele said. When Celestino said Stefano had a dream and a plan, he’d expected something along the lines of being a rock star or something, and a half-assed plan along the lines of “move to America and work as a waiter until I’m noticed and hit it big”. Stefano had a couple universities picked out as the best places to study, what he’d need to do to get into those schools and what to do when he got there, and what to do if he didn’t get a job where he wanted immediately after graduation. He really was serious about this, and he even included continuing skating in there – after all, to be an astronaut, he’d need to be in top physical condition, and skating helped him do that. Just scaling way back on the level.

“I’m seriously impressed,” Emil said. “I’m sorry we put so much pressure on you to be like us. You’re your own person, and we should respect that.”

“Does that mean you’ll let me do it?”

Michele nodded. “It’s a big decision, one you should think through very carefully before you make it, but it sounds to me like you’ve done that. I hope I get to be there the first time you launch into space.”

“Oh, please,” Emil said, taking Michele’s hand. “You’ll be hiding somewhere, praying that he’ll make it back alive, just like you do every time I go cliff diving or bungee jumping.”

“That’s different! That’s… that’s you being an idiot, not achieving a dream,” Michele protested. “For Stefano’s launch, I will be there.”


	49. Sastiel: One's a famous musician

Castiel didn’t believe in fate. Fate was an authority figure, and that was the whole point of punk - standing up to authority figures and telling them to fuck off, I do things my way. On stage, Castiel played the part. Piercings, tattoos, ripped jeans, crazy hair colors and styles, all of it. Off-stage, the only thing he kept were the tattoos, and that was only because it was too much work to redo them every time he went on stage and make sure they were all just right. The black wings that covered his entire back and arms alone would take all his free time. Never mind the ones on his chest and his neck. Other than the tattoos, though, off-stage he dressed comfortably and for himself.

The idea was to prevent moments like this, where someone spotted him and recognized him. The trench coat hid most of his tattoos, but the ones on his neck, he regretted. The Cyrillic letters spelling his and his sister Anna and his brother Gabriel’s names were recognizable, up close, and the cashier at the store he’d stopped in to look for a birthday present for Anna screamed. Castiel ran.

He ducked into the nearest shop that didn’t look like it was crowded, which turned out to be a florist shop. The man behind the counter looked up from his phone, and then dropped it. “Oh my god. I… sorry, I mean… do you need to hide? I’ve got a good spot for hiding. Come on back.” Castiel did. The man clearly recognized him, but he was offering help instead of joining the crowd he could still see looking for him.


	50. Sastiel: One's a YouTuber

It was a small rebellion, but it was rebellion. John said he had to spend Sunday in religious activity? That was fine. Thankfully, John hadn’t gotten around to watching any of Castiel Reads and Explains The Bible, so he didn’t know just how contemptuous the series was of Christianity in general and the Bible in particular.

He couldn’t blame his dad for being such a zealot, really. To hear John tell it, if he hadn’t gotten religion after Mary’s death, he’d probably have become some kind of drifter criminal serial killer. Those were the only two options, according to the Gospel of John Winchester - be saved by the LORD or be a complete degenerate.

Sam had grown up believing just as much as his father and brother. He was a child; what other choice did he have? But the logical inconsistencies of the Bible had always bothered him, and when he found Castiel’s videos, he found himself with a lot more faith in Castiel than in anyone mentioned in the Bible. For one thing, Castiel never claimed to have the answers. Every video started with a reminder that he was only human, that he had his own biases and blind spots that colored his thinking, so disagreement was welcome. Sam had gotten into more than one discussion with Castiel in the comments - later DMs on social media - that ended up with Castiel recording a new video to share the thoughts of a friend he codenamed Cardinal. There was the obvious religious reference there, but also a shared dream - Castiel was a religious studies student at Stanford, and Sam hoped to join him there. Different major, of course, something more science-y just to shoot a take that at John’s ranting about the evils of that godless science. But it would be good to escape and have a friend waiting for him on the outside.


	51. Sastiel: Jock/Outcast AU

If it had been football, John Winchester might have been proud of him. Sam didn’t like football - too much hitting, too much standing around between plays, too much adulation. Over John’s protests, he’d gone for soccer instead, and that got him a full-ride scholarship to Stanford. That wasn’t easy - they were Pac-12 champions, did well in the tournament, this was a Huge Fucking Deal. But it wasn’t a sport John Winchester understood, so Sam was kicked out for trying to leave home.

Castiel was also a scholarship athlete, but most people forgot that. He was considered weird among his peers, often having difficulty finding partners for projects or study groups despite his perfect GPA and track record in not just doing his part but helping group members who needed it with theirs. Castiel never seemed to mind, occasionally working alone if he could get away with it. When the sailing team made the news and Castiel’s name was mentioned, even with the oddness of the name it took them a while to realize it was the same person.

Sam and Castiel met in a psychology class. They were assigned to work together on a project, and all of Sam’s friends felt bad for him. Sam didn’t feel bad for himself, though. He felt blessed. For once, he could relax and just do his half of a project. It didn’t work out that way, Sam and Castiel discovered they enjoyed each other’s company and collaborated on the whole thing. Then they just forgot to stop meeting at the library to study together, and when the class ended, they forgot to stop meeting at the library just to hang out.


	52. Sastiel: Meet the Parents

Most people being introduced to their boyfriend’s father, the only parent he had ever known, were a little nervous. Castiel was not. Castiel had a plan, and knew exactly when, where, and how he would meet John Winchester. One advantage of being a time-traveling angel: he could pull a stunt like this, as long as it didn’t change the timeline.

It was July of 2002. Sam had walked out on his family a week earlier. Dean was off with some girl whose name he couldn’t remember by the time Castiel was wooing Sam, trying to forget that his brother was gone for good.

“John Winchester?” The man pointed a gun at Castiel, which he took as confirmation. “You are an idiot who doesn’t deserve a son like Sam.” He threw a punch into John’s face, and then pressed two fingers to his forehead to knock him out. When he woke up in the morning, he’d assume it was a hangover and not believe any memories he might retain.


	53. Sastiel: Friends Make a Porno

Sam spat out his coffee. He cannot have heard Castiel right. “I’m sorry, did you just say you wanted to make a porno with me?” Castiel nodded. “You do know what that is, right? What’s involved?”

Castiel rolled his eyes. “Dean’s made me watch enough of them, I would hope I understand by now. We come up with a horribly contrived scenario in which to have sex.”

Welp. Castiel understood porn, all right. “Okay. Why do you want to make a porno?”

“Dean’s birthday is coming up. He enjoys porn, so I thought I’d make him one, and you’re the only person I can imagine asking to do this with me.”

“Not Dean?”

“Leaving aside my feelings about him, it’s logistically impossible to ask him to star in a porno that will then become his surprise for his birthday.”

“You think he’d want to watch a porn starring his brother? That’s a little…”

Castiel smiled, an evil smirk that Sam had never thought he’d see on Castiel’s face. “I served under Zachariah for years, and I did learn a thing or two. This is my petty revenge for everything we went through with the Mark of Cain, up to and including him not realizing how similar that was to my deal with Crowley or yours with Ruby and finally getting over those.”

“In that case… this is my petty revenge for every time he said ‘don’t worry about him, he’s sleeping.’”


	54. Otayuri: Friends Make a Porno

Yuri was absolutely sick of his fans. He was nineteen, for fuck’s sake, not fifteen anymore. And yet, he still got treated like a child, like a precious princess who had to be protected. Except from them, of course, they should have full access to him whenever they wanted.

He had an idea how to get that stopped, one he’d just finished explaining to Otabek. “We don’t have to put your face or voice on camera, you don’t have any tattoos that would identify you, we can photoshop scars if we need to, I won’t say who it is without your permission. I know you’ve got that hero thing going on and this could cause problems for you.”

“As long as it’s obviously consensual, no one’s going to care about me having sex with my best friend, and they’re not going to blame me for leaking it. I assume you have a plan for how to do that without it being traced back to you?” Yuri nodded. “Let’s do this, then.”


	55. Casson: "This is probably a bad time, but marry me?"

Detroit had proved to be a very strange adventure. Sam had settled into a comfortable relationship with his brother, where despite not having been raised together they were in sync and inseparable. He’d also settled into a fulfilling relationship with Cass D’Angelo, where they complained about their horrible boss and researched monsters and the occult and all kinds of weirdness together.

Putting that research to work is what made Detroit so strange. Ghosts, Sam had grown used to. Werewolves, demons, vampires, he’d grown up on all that lore. There were things here that he’d never heard of until he found himself staring them down and hoping that something he had quick access to would at least stop the thing long enough for Sam to get to safety.

For instance: he’d never heard of a qareen until Cass had attacked him after work one night and Sam couldn’t keep up in the fight. He’d been reluctant to draw his gun, but when he did, the bullets barely even slowed Cass down.

“Well, this is a relief,” Cass said.

Sam’s head whipped back and forth between the two Casses in his room. “Cass? What’s going on?”

“I’ll explain later, but we need to get out of here now.” Cass took a shot at the other Cass, and Sam ran. Maybe it was a trick, but between the Cass trying to kill him and the Cass trying to save his life, he’d take the one saving his life any day.

Once they got to Cass’s beat-up Pinto and were on the road, he explained further. “Dean really made Sonja mad when he said no to a date. She kidnapped him, told him he’d regret this and she was going to expose you and him for what you really were, and sent that qareen after you.”

“What we really are? Huh? What are we?”

“According to her, Dean’s marriage to his job and your relationship with me are cover for the fact that you two never broke up after discovering you were brothers. She intended to prove it with the qareen – it takes the form of your deepest, darkest desire.” Cass glanced away from the road. “This is probably a bad time, but marry me?”

“Yeah, su… wait, the relief was that it was you instead of Dean? Really?”

“It’s not that I doubt that you love me. I was concerned because that’s hardly a secret to anybody. If there’s a part of you still in love with Dean, that might have qualified instead. I wouldn’t judge or blame you for that. The relief is that if she had some kind of camera or something on you to prove her claim, it backfired spectacularly.”

“Oh.” Sam ducked his head, smiling hard. “Yeah. Sure. Let’s get married.”


	56. Sastiel: “It’s my younger sibling's wedding and my father won’t shut up about how I’m going to die alone”

Castiel tossed his letter on the table. Sam looked up from his laptop. “Something wrong?”

“Hannah’s getting married.”

“Your sister Hannah? That’s great… wait.” The familiar taste of foot filled Sam’s mouth. “Your younger sister Hannah. The one who’s eighteen and still in high school.”

“She won’t be by the wedding, they’re getting married in June after graduation, but yes. That Hannah. Dad apparently volunteered to mail my invitation, because it was tucked inside this.” Castiel held up a three-page letter. “A list of reasons why I should be ashamed of myself and my life. Wouldn’t most parents be proud of their son being responsible and focusing on his studies in medical school instead of marrying someone just for the sake of being able to say he was married?”

“You’d think, but then again, remember how my dad kicked me out of the house for earning a full-ride scholarship to Stanford?” Sam set his laptop aside and got up to hug Castiel. “You want to really make him mad?”

“Uh-oh. That’s your scheming voice.” Castiel leaned in. “What’s the scheme?”

“Take me to the wedding as your date. Introduce me as your boyfriend.”

Castiel blinked and looked up at him. “Wouldn’t that contradict everything I’ve told him about being aromantic?”

“Your dad doesn’t believe you anyway, and it’s not for a lack of you explaining it to him like you would to a four-year-old. Besides, it’s totally possible to be in a relationship without it being romantic. Sure, he’ll probably pull the ‘how is that different from a really close friendship’ card, but at this point, you might as well accept that his ignorance about aro stuff is willful, Cas.”

“And you’re willing to play along with that? Try to convince everyone that we’re a couple even if we’re not doing typical couple things?”

“Sure. Or, you know… we could not play.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that I’m already looking for a one-year internship here in town so I can stay with you while you finish medical school and still have the flexibility to move with you wherever you end up doing your residency. Any time we start talking about the future, we’re talking about it like we’ll still be living together, still be one of the most important people in each other’s lives.”

“What about sex?”

“What about it? Are you not attracted to me anymore?”

“You said…”

“I said I don’t do friends with benefits or casual sex because I need a strong emotional connection to be attracted. We’ve been living together for five and a half years now, I think it’s safe to say we’ve got a strong enough connection.” They’d met freshman year when Castiel hit on Sam at a party and Sam turned him down. They’d spent the night together anyway, talking about their classes and their families and their backgrounds, and moved in together at the start of their sophomore year.

“I thought you needed a romantic connection.”

Sam shrugged. “I don’t need to act on it. I’m good, Cas. I’ve been meaning to talk to you about this anyway, what with my graduation from law school coming up. If you’re not interested, that’s fine, we’re still best friends and bros, but this isn’t just some whim to appease your father while pissing him off.”

“Wow.” Castiel sat on his bed. “I need a little while to think this over. I’d written off this possibility years ago, but now it’s here and it is so tempting.”

“Take all the time you need, just don’t let it distract you during clinic.” Sam picked his laptop back up. “Of course, if I don’t get this stupid essay written, I’m not going to graduate…”


	57. Sara/Mila/Michele: “My groom ditched me at the altar, but fuck them i’m taking this honeymoon anyway."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> No Crispycest.

The tears were ruining the white gown, but who cared, anyway? The tears were caused by the wedding the white gown had been for being ruined, so it was poetic justice or full circle or something like that. She was never going to forgive Sergei. They’d held everything for an hour, and then Sergei texted her. Fucking TEXTED her.

Hey babe! This is Karina, she’s my soulmate, the love of my life, I’m sorry but it’s over between us. I’m moving to Tahiti. Forget me and have a great life!

There was a picture of him with some girl. Mila couldn’t help it, she hated Karina and thought she looked like a tramp, but the small part of her brain that could still be reasonable told her that was just her anger at Sergei trying to coexist with her love for him. So much easier to blame Karina than Sergei, but so much more wrong, too.

Everyone had gone home, or so Mila thought. Viktor and Yuuri, Yuri, and Yakov had all offered to stay with her and keep her company, but she’d declined. Her mother had given her one last lecture about how she always knew Sergei was no good for her before taking her father and her older brother and his family and sweeping out. It was therefore quite unexpected when Mila felt the arm around her and the head on her shoulder. “Mila?”

“Sara? What are you still doing here? I thought I told everyone to go home.”

“You did, but... Mickey and I didn’t listen. Come on, you should go get changed, you have a flight to catch!”

“What, the honeymoon? You think I’m still going?”

“Yes, I do.” Sara’s soft support left, and then Sara was in front of her, hands gripping her shoulders like iron. “You are getting on that plane with me and Mickey, and the three of us are going to lie on the beach in Spain and forget Sergei even exists. This isn’t a negotiation. You go willingly, or Mickey and I kidnap you, wedding gown or not.”

“How...”

“Mickey called the airline. They were very sympathetic and easily agreed to alter the plans. The hotel’s a little weirded out by three people staying in the honeymoon suite, but that’s their deal.”

 

Mila had been on vacation with Michele and Sara before, and Michele was bad about being overattentive to and overprotective of his sister. This time, though, Michele was equally attentive to Mila, and ran off any boys who were too persistent in flirting with her. Mila was oddly grateful for it; after Sergei, she was in no mood to deal with it.

Still, she asked Sara the first chance she got. “What’s with Mickey? Did I get adopted when I wasn’t looking?”

“Not exactly? He’s... it’s complicated, and the last thing you need to deal with right now.”

“Don’t you start getting overprotective, Sara. I can’t deal with both of you.”

“Fine, just remember I tried not to dump this on you now of all times. Mickey’s treating you like this because he’s in love with you but he knows that I am too and you know him, he’d sacrifice everything if it meant seeing me happy, so he’s treating you like the sister he hopes you’ll be someday.”

Mila’s head exploded. Not literally, but it was close. “You guys are both in love with me? Seriously?”

“Seriously. Neither of us were going to do anything about it, because of Sergei, and now trying to give you some time to get over him before we even brought it up, but...” Sara shrugged. “Obviously we’re not going to expect you to even think about things yet, but when you’re ready, make your own choice. Don’t let us make it for you like Mickey’s trying to.”

“You know what I really want?”

“What?”

“The Three Musketeers. I mean, you and Mickey are brother and sister, no one’s going to expect you to cross any weird lines...”

“There are those who would argue we’re way too late for that,” Sara muttered.

“Yeah, well, gossips and idiots notwithstanding, you know what I mean. All three of us are so close... trying to make me pick one is like asking Phichit to pick a favorite hamster.”

Sara reached out and tucked Mila’s hair back behind her ear. “Well, I was worried you might end up making the decision on the basis of being straight, which would be fair if you were but if you’re not...”

“Nope.”

“And Sergei...?”

“Broke my heart over text message. Fuck him, I think I’ve wasted enough of my life on him, haven’t I?”


	58. Sastiel: “It’s our honeymoon but we’re spies/secret agents/whatever and bad guys keep appearing to ruin everything.”

Sam was going to kill Dean when he got home. “I don’t want to take a honeymoon, Dean. You know we’re not allowed to have nice things, don’t you think I’m pushing my luck enough by marrying Cas?”

“It’ll be fine. Take the Impala, drive around, go lay on a beach somewhere, just relax and enjoy being a newlywed.”

“If I take the Impala, what are you gonna do?”

“Chill here. If I need anything, there are Men of Letters cars. Emergency, I send Jack to go get you. It’ll be fun. You’ll do great. Knock yourself out!”

 

It was not fine. It had not been fun. It had been anything but relaxing. It seemed like every demon in existence had decided that Sam and Cas, away from Dean, were fair game. They’d barely made it to the Oklahoma border, and they’d been gone three days. Naturally, in the first fight, both of their cell phones had been broken, and although Sam had tried praying to Jack, nothing had happened.

“That’s it. We are turning around, we are going back to the Bunker, and we are rubbing this in for the rest of our lives,” Sam decided after they fought off the most recent demon.

“Agreed. I wonder why Jack hasn’t been able to hear you?”

“Let’s ask.” Sam pointed to a figure that appeared in front of the Impala. “Jack! What’s going on?”

“I found this, and it took a few days to figure out what it was. Dean was starting to get worried about you guys. He says he knows he told you to have fun and enjoy yourselves and all, but you could have called?”

“Couldn’t?” Sam held up his broken phone.

“I figured as much when I realized what this is.” Jack held up the black disc. “It was in my pocket.”

“What is it?” Sam asked.

Castiel took it and scowled. “It’s a prayer blocker. Usually it’s given to a human to prevent their prayers from reaching Heaven. Living beings dragged to Hell, people demons are torturing on Earth. Giving it to Jack would have prevented him from receiving any prayers.”

“Exactly. So I figured I’d come check on you guys. No offense, but you look terrible.”

Sam took the disc and threw it as far as he could. “Can you take us home? It took three days to get this far. Shouldn’t have taken three hours.”

“Wow. That... yeah. Let’s go.”


	59. SaMichael: Hammock Cuddles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Previously](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12887763/chapters/29679840)   
>  [on the](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12887763/chapters/29681637)   
>  [show](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12887763/chapters/29704437)

Dean was starting to give him funny looks. It had been a while since he got laid, and for some bizarre reason, Dean was worried about it. He mostly kept it to himself after Sam had snapped and pointed out that Dean’s obsession with Sam’s love life is probably at least a contributing factor to the fact that half the hunting world thought they were fucking, but it was still there.

Sam wasn’t worried about it. At one point, he’d planned to marry a girl who would never have sex with him; sex was nice, he enjoyed it, but he wasn’t Dean. He could find his fulfillment without it.

Castiel was less worried about the sex and more worried about Sam’s happiness in general. He could feel Sam’s loneliness, and though he accepted Sam’s word that he was happy despite that, he was still concerned. Sam could appreciate that, especially since Castiel never got pushy about it.

The problem was that it wasn’t a generalized loneliness. Sam wasn’t lonely for a hypothetical someone. He missed his archangel. It was ridiculous, they’d only ever spent one night together, and when Michael left he never said anything about expecting Sam to wait for him. If anything, it had seemed Michael was encouraging him not to, with the reminder that he couldn’t come often and the words to shut up Castiel if he objected.

He woke up one summer morning nowhere near where he’d gone to bed. That had been in the Bunker, in his own bed, once again alone. He woke up in a hammock, with someone’s arms around him. “Good morning, Sam.”

“Michael.” Sam blinked the rest of the sleep out of his eyes. “Good morning. It’s good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you, too.” Michael ran his fingers through Sam’s hair. “It’s been far too long.”

“What brings you here?”

“My brother, of all things.” Sam tensed up, but Michael realized his mistake right away. “Not that one. Gabriel. He’s been talking to Castiel, it would seem, and they’re getting worried about you. After Gabriel got done throwing quite the tantrum my way, he had a solution to allow me to spend more time with you: he’s off with Lucifer, keeping him away from the Earth, and we’ll trade off every few months.”

“Gabriel’s getting worr… Gabriel’s alive?!”

“He is. I don’t know how he fooled Lucifer, but we both felt it when Asmodeus began sucking his grace.”

“Asmodeus?”

“One of the four princes of Hell? Him, Dagon, Ramiel, and Azazel. Dagon and Ramiel are retired, Azazel and Asmodeus are dead.”

Sam blinked. “Azazel was a prince of Hell?”

“Indeed. I think Lucifer and Lilith intended him to be the demonic version of Lucifer. Ramiel was me, Dagon Raphael, and Asmodeus Gabriel.”

“Huh. I never knew that. I just thought he was a particularly powerful demon.”

“Well, you’re not wrong there. Anyway. Gabriel’s alive and he and Lucifer are touring the universe for the next three months. Longer if I ask him to, since I’ve been away so long.”


	60. Sastiel: "Will you marry me?"

“Sam, I have a very important question for you.”

Sam looked up from his book, smiling softly at Castiel. “Shoot.”

“Why would I shoot you? I’d just have to heal you up, and it would be a waste of a bullet.”

Sam huffed a laugh and shook his head. “I know you better than that, man, you knew what I meant. What’s the question?”

“Will you marry me?”

Sam looked at his left hand, at the gold ring on his third finger. “We’re engaged, Cas.”

“Are we? We obtained and exchanged these rings, but neither of us ever really asked the other, and when Dean started asking about the wedding, I realized we’d never talked about it. You might have meant them as a thank you for everything I’ve done for you, or a way to connect us without necessarily intending marriage, and you have a complicated relationship with the idea of promising to be somewhere forever...”

Sam set his book aside and got up to hug Castiel. “I love you. These absolutely were meant as engagement rings, and I want to be at your side forever.”


	61. Sastiel: "You Taste Like Heaven."

Admittedly, Castiel had very limited experience in these matters, and the “educational videos” Dean had provided... weren’t. However, he was reasonably certain that while laughter was perfectly acceptable during sex, interrupting the makeout session that was intended to lead that direction with a giggle fit that meant Sam was laughing too hard to continue was not what was meant to happen. “Sam? What’s wrong?”

Sam shook his head. “Sorry, I... nothing’s wrong, I swear. It’s just a stray thought that crossed my mind and... you didn’t do anything wrong, I really want to continue as soon as I can breathe again, but...” And Sam was gone again, laughing too hard to speak.

Castiel could, he supposed, use his grace to remove Sam’s ability to laugh until he had himself under control. He would never violate Sam’s autonomy like that, but it was a simple solution to this problem. Instead, he would have to wait it out.

Sam wiped his eyes and climbed back into position, straddling Castiel’s lap. “I’m really sorry about that.”

“Will you tell me what was so funny?”

“Well... we were kissing, and there’s this thing about describing what it tastes like, and all I could think was that you taste like heaven.”


	62. Samazar: "Hello, gorgeous, do I know you?"

They hadn’t been sure it was Balthazar until Dean called Cas, but Cas confirmed it: that guy over there getting a massage at the airport was the angel they’d believed Castiel had killed on his god power trip. Sam groaned - he’d lost the bet, and now, he had to go over to the man and take over the massage.

At least Sam was good at this. Jess, Dean, Cas... it wasn’t often he got close enough to someone to perform a service like this for them without bizarre circumstances, but when he did, he enjoyed it. It was fun, and watching his friends relax for once under his hands was therapeutic for him, too. Balthazar moaned a little. “Your hands got a lot bigger.”

Sam didn’t answer, just kept working. When he got to the lower back, Balthazar moaned again. “You know, if you want to keep going south, I certainly have no objection. Your hands are so strong.”

Sam was going to kill Dean, and possibly Cas for not lying to them. “Sorry, dude, not happening.”

Balthazar lifted his head, craning around to look at Sam. “Hello, gorgeous, do I know you?”

“Yes, Balthazar, you do. It’s good to see you again. I thought you were dead.”

“Sam Winchester. What are you doing in an airport? I thought your big bro hated flying, even with his pet angel!”

“He does, but we don’t get to pick where the ghosts are. Haunted airport.” Sam stepped away, letting the original masseur take back over. “Why didn’t you tell us you were alive?!”

“Well, last time I talked to Cassie he killed me, forgive me for not running back to my murderer and his crushes. It’s good to see you, though. Him, too. I take it someone talked him down from the ledge?”

“Not... exactly. He died and got brought back.” Sam glanced at the masseuse, who had a very weirded-out look on her face. “Aaaaand we should probably finish this conversation later. You know how to find us.”

“Sure. Tag along on this hunt.” Balthazar stood up and settled up with the masseuse, including a very generous tip.


	63. Wincest: "Yell, scream, say something!" (nsfw)

There really wasn’t any explaining this. There was no possible way to explain both Winchesters being naked and Dean having his head between Sam’s legs as anything but exactly what it looked like. In Mary’s defense, they probably should have taken this to one of their rooms and then locked the door, but they’d gotten so used to this being their bunker, and Sam loved this table. It was a little freaky, how much Sam loved this table, but Dean was perfectly happy to go along with it. Neither of them had thought about the fact that Mary was here now. Cas walking in on them was one thing, but Mary...

Mary turned to walk out, and Dean couldn’t take that. “That’s it? You’re just gonna walk away?”

Mary stopped and turned back. “Yes? What do you want me to do, Dean?”

“I don’t know. Yell, scream, say something! Don’t just leave us hanging.”

Mary raised an eyebrow. “Only one leaving someone hanging here is you, interrupting what you were doing to Sam. I’m going to my room. Finish up here, then we can talk.”

 

Sam agreed that the moment was ruined, so they got dressed and followed Mary not long after. Mary rolled her eyes. “Come on, you’re not gonna convince me that’s all it takes you.”

“You, uh... mood was ruined, figured we may as well get this over with,” Sam said. “Mom...”

“Listen. You boys are grown men. If I’d been here to raise you, things might be different, but I wasn’t. I have no idea how long this has been going on or how much John knew about it...”

“On and off since I was sixteen, and Dad knew,” Sam said. “He wasn’t happy about it, and he told Dean that if we got caught and he got arrested he wasn’t gonna lift a finger to help, but he never tried to make us stop, either.”

“Since you were sixteen.” Mary looked a little ill at that, but she cleared up quickly. “There you go. That’s, what, half your lives? At this point, the only thing me trying to stop things would do is end any chance we’ve got at building a relationship now, so carry on. I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but I need to leave - not because of this, this is just a spark - this isn’t my world. You’re my sons, but you’re not the boys I knew. I need to go out there and find out who I am in this world, and I can’t do that if I have the two of you trying to make me who you think I should be. I have a cell phone, so we can keep in contact, but I... I need to find my own way.”


	64. Sastiel: International Cat Day

Dean stopped and stared at the scene in front of him. “What the hell, Sam. You know I’m allergic.”

Sam looked up from the cat on his lap. “Take an antihistamine, I’m not letting you throw him out. Look.” Sam held the cat up to face Dean. The cat’s blue eyes narrowed at him in an awfully familiar way. 

Very familiar. He’d only ever seen that on… “You found a cat that reminds you of Castiel.”

Sam stroked the cat’s sleek black fur as it settled back into his lap. “Except for the part where the cat likes me. Cas wouldn’t curl up in my lap like this.”

“MROW!”

“Giant or not, Cas wouldn’t fit in your lap like that,” Dean said. “What are you gonna do with him in the Impala?”

“Given that he’s been sitting in my lap for four hours and jumps right back up when I have to get up to pee, I think he’ll be fine sitting in my lap. We can set up a litterbox in the back, and you can decide whether the smells are worse than the stops.” Sam skritched the cat’s ears. “If you look close, his back has markings that make it almost look like folded wings.”

There was no way Dean was getting rid of this cat, was there. Sam had bonded too quickly. “Tell me you’re not naming the cat Castiel.”

“Nah. I’m naming the cat Catstiel. That way if Cas manages to return from the dead again, it’s less confusing.”


	65. SaMichael: "The stars wish they were as bright as you."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> [Previously](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12887763/chapters/29679840)   
>  [on](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12887763/chapters/29681637)   
>  [the](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12887763/chapters/29704437)   
>  [show](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13000356/chapters/35481792)

“Hey. Sam. I’m a little out of practice with this, but… dude, go get laid, would you?”

Sam rolled his eyes. “Dude. Michael’s only been gone a week. I’m moping because I miss him, not because I need to go bang some random person. It’s kinda embarrassing how much I got used to him being around, it was only six months, but I’m not gonna apologize for missing my boyfriend.” Michael had to go, of course; Lucifer needed a keeper. It wasn’t fair to expect Gabriel to do it full-time, and no one but an archangel would be able to handle Lucifer.

“He said he didn’t have a problem with you going out and getting laid while he was gone, so what’s the problem?”

“I’m not you. Sure, I can do the one-night thing, but I’m a lot happier with sex when it’s meaningful. Besides, you really wouldn’t understand this and probably don’t want to know, but sex with an archangel? There’s no way a human could measure up.”

As expected, Dean had his hands over his ears. “Dude, I know you’re banging him, but I do not need to hear details!”

“Then don’t start trying to get me laid. I’m happy with Michael, even with the absences. Hard to be mad at him for going off to the stars, especially since he’s doing it because that’s what he needs to do to keep me safe.”

A rush of wind cut off whatever retort Dean was about to make. “The stars wish they were as bright as you, Sam.”

“Michael?” Sam turned around and threw his arms around his archangel. “What are you doing back so soon?”

“Gabriel threw another tantrum,” Michael said with a soft smile. “This one at Raphael – Lucifer is his brother too, and Raphael very rarely leaves Heaven for anything but dire need. He complains about being cooped up, but he hates coming to Earth, so this seemed like a good compromise for him. The problem is that Raphael doesn’t exactly approve of my relationship with you. With the three of us taking turns, I’ll only be gone with Lucifer four months out of the year. When it’s Gabriel here with me, I’ll have more to do in Heaven than when it’s Raphael, Gabriel wants to be on Earth as much as I do, but I’ll be around the next six months while Raphael reconnects with Lucifer.”

“Perfect.”

“Come on. Celebration time.” Michael scooped up Sam into a bridal carry. “Dean, if you need him back for something, call or pray or send Cas. Don’t need him back for something for the rest of the night.”


	66. Vichris: Slow Burn

Chris hated the whole “friend zone” concept. It seemed sexist, condescending, and entitled. Guys who befriended people just because they expected sex out of it? How creepy could you get? Any time Chris found out a guy thought of him like that, they weren’t put in the friend zone. They were put in the keep the hell away from me zone.

He’d never befriended Victor with the idea that Victor owed him sex. He’d befriended Victor, and little by little, fell in love with his friend. It wasn’t like he felt entitled to Victor’s attention. He just wished that one day, Victor would believe Chris when he said he loved him.

Victor had a bad habit of losing his heart too easily, and to the wrong people. People who couldn’t handle him. People who only wanted him for his fame or his money. Adorable dancing boys who led him on and then vanished without a trace or a phone number. His best friend.

That last one was the one that hurt the worst. Chris was always there, always so sweet to him when he got his heart broken, always reminding Victor that no matter what those assholes did, he was lovable and he was loved. If only Chris meant it the way Victor wanted to hear it from him.

When Victor suddenly disappeared after his fifth straight world championship, the first place Chris looked was in Japan. Maybe Victor had finally figured out who Katsuki Yuuri was and gone looking. He checked Detroit, too, but Victor wasn’t either place. Chris finally tracked him down in a small town outside Yekaterinburg, sitting in a park babbling to Makkachin.

Victor’s so surprised to see Chris that this time, he listens. He properly listens to Chris when Chris tells him how much he loves him. There are tears, and hugs, and apologies, and promises to love each other forever.


	67. Emil/Leo: Fake Dating

It starts innocently enough. After a disastrous attempt to come out to his family as gay, Leo decides he wants a boyfriend ASAP to prove to his parents that no, he’s not confused or delusional or going through a phase, he is attracted to dudes and only dudes. His first thought is Phichit, but Phichit apologetically says he has a boyfriend who wouldn’t appreciate him getting into a fake relationship. Phichit suggests Emil. Leo’s hesitant at first - “I’m not a Crispino” - but Phichit convinces him that there’s no harm in asking.

Emil agrees to the plan. He’s sick of everyone’s assumptions that he’s into Michele - Mickey’s like his brother, for god’s sake - and Mickey’s assumptions that he’s into Sara - she’s like his sister. He’s always liked Leo, and hey, what’s the worst that can happen? One of them falls for real and the other doesn’t and the “staged” breakup becomes a real one. It’ll hurt, sure, but pain’s part of life.

Luckily, they both fall for real.


	68. JJSeung: Enemies to Lovers

JJ and Seung Gil met on the ice. Literally. With their bodies. During warmups, Seung Gil crashed into JJ and both boys tumbled to the ice. JJ was convinced Seung Gil did it on purpose; Seung Gil swore it was an accident and loathed the boy who refused to believe him. Luckily, nobody was hurt, but when Seung Gil beat JJ for gold, JJ swore never to forgive him.

Years pass. Their rivalry is bitter. “JJ landed a quad loop, huh? Four Continents just got a lot more fun.” Seung Gil is looking forward to destroying his rival, even with his fancy new jump - that he copied from Seung Gil. They both miss the podium - JJ fourth, Seung Gil fifth. A night out drinking ends up with Seung Gil hitting on JJ to annoy him, and JJ taking him up on it for reasons Seung Gil cannot figure out. JJ’s supposed to be engaged. And straight. And there’s the little thing where they hate each other.

Seung Gil’s not the least surprised when he wakes up alone. He is completely surprised when he looks at his phone and there’s a long note from JJ, explaining how his engagement to Isabella is genuine but open for JJ to sleep with guys and Isabella to sleep with chicks. JJ apologizes for being such a dick about the collision, saying that his parents were filming it and showed him that Seung Gil wasn’t watching where he was going, which means it wasn’t malicious. Of course, fresh irritations every time they ran into each other meant that JJ kept “forgetting” to apologize. “But now that we’ve kissed, can we make up, too?”


	69. Viktuuri: Fake Dating

“Win a Date with Viktor Nikiforov, Figure Skating’s Living Legend!” Phichit tries to get Yuuri to enter the contest, and after beating his head against the brick wall of Yuuri’s stubbornness, enters for him.

Viktor doesn’t know why he agreed to this. A date with a fan? It’s going to be a long, tedious, boring night. He sincerely hopes whoever the fan ends up being understands that this whole thing is fake, and therefore Viktor is not going to kiss them or anything further. The publicity team running the contest narrows down the applicants to five finalists, whose applications are presented to Viktor. His original plan - putting the five names up on a wall and throwing darts - dies the second he sees the picture of the adorable Japanese man cuddling a tiny brown poodle. Something about him looks familiar, so he googles the name, and comes up with a new-to-seniors figure skater who he now recalls from watching Four Continents with Yakov. He fell on a triple Lutz and underrotated another jump, but his dancing... Viktor was far more impressed than Yakov, right up until Yakov found out that Yuuri had only recently gotten proper coaching to compete at this level.

Yuuri nearly dies when he receives the notification that he won the date with Viktor, along with the plane tickets to meet Viktor in Saint Petersburg. Phichit and Celestino force him onto the plane, and Yuuri settles in, trying to figure out how to survive this without completely mortifying himself.

The date begins awkwardly, as Yuuri seems to be very shy and tongue-tied. Well, Viktor’s used to that, especially from young skaters who are new to seniors. He uses every trick he knows to put Yuuri at ease, but nothing works. At the end of the scripted date - tourism, visiting the rink Viktor trains at, dinner, and a trip to the ballet (it had been a movie, but Yuuri’s application mentioned how much he loved ballet, so Viktor got it switched) - Viktor threw the planned ending of walking Yuuri to the hotel, saying goodnight, congratulating him on his win, and escaping, out the window. He invited Yuuri to come to his apartment and meet Makkachin. Then he could take Yuuri back to the hotel, and hopefully, convince Yuuri to give him his phone number so they could set up another date for real.

Meeting Makkachin finally loosens the knot of anxiety. Talking to Viktor? Yuuri barely managed it all day. But dogs... dogs, he could do. He talked to Makkachin easily, telling Makkachin all about how much he’d looked up to Viktor and hoped someday to meet him on the ice. How nervous he’d been about this date, and how much he’d enjoyed it, no matter what it may have looked like to Viktor. How he felt like Cinderella, but the clock was about to strike midnight, and he wished this never had to end.

At the hotel, Viktor thanks Yuuri for the magical evening, and asks Yuuri to spare him the worldwide search for the owner of the glass slipper and just give him his phone number now. Yuuri agrees, figuring Viktor heard him talking to Makkachin and is just playing along.

When Viktor shows up at the hotel the next morning, Yuuri’s confused. The date’s over, it’s time for Yuuri to go back to being a dime-a-dozen skater trying to make it big, why’s Viktor here? Viktor just wanted to say goodbye, and to ask Yuuri to call him when he lands in Detroit, and when would be a good time for Viktor to come to Detroit to see him? Yuuri’s confused, but he plays along.

The big story of the season is all about how lovestruck Viktor Nikiforov is acting - he even scrapped his original free skate to skate to music from “Cinderella”, a move that Yakov had nothing good to say about when asked by the press. Yuuri thinks it’s all a continuation of the publicity stunt, but hey, it’s Viktor Nikiforov paying attention to him, so he’ll ride this out as long as it lasts and deal with the shattered fragments of his glass heart when the ride ends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Sequel!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16035251/chapters/37454972)


	70. Otayuri: Enemies to Lovers

Summer camp was going to be bad enough, stuck with a bunch of losers because Yakov wouldn’t let him train with the juniors. “You’re too young to be in there,” they insisted. He was eleven. He could literally dance and skate circles around most of the people in the junior group. He hated his coach, he hated his life, and he especially hated that weirdo who was supposed to be in with the juniors but got put with the novices. Sometimes people just sucked, and Yuri could have dealt with that, but this weirdo kept staring at him. It creeped him out.

Yuri could not come up with an excuse for why, when Otabek told him they’d been in camp together, he didn’t immediately make the connection with the weirdo creeper. After all, the dude had only magically been in the right place at the right time to sweep him off his feet and away from a fangirl ambush, and then took advantage of that to take him to a romantic park to watch the sunset and talk about the old days. Certain elements of the press were all over the creepy aspects of it, the older teen preying on the innocent Russian fairy angel.

And yet... Yuri didn’t feel preyed on. He didn’t feel creeped out. He no longer felt creeped out by the weird kid staring at him in camp, not now that he understood Otabek’s background and why he’d been so fascinated by Yuri back then. Otabek was a good guy. Total sweetheart. His biggest flaw was that apparently he and JJ were friends. Whatever, it’s not like Yuri owned Otabek, and it’s not like JJ was competition for getting Otabek to be his boyfriend.

That turned out to be harder than Yuri had expected. Far from the media reports of the predator, Otabek turned out to be somewhat shocked at the idea that anyone would think he was interested in Yuri that way. He wanted to be friends. Fortunately, a little time and space and one weird night of flirting with Guang Hong were all it took to convince Otabek that no, his intentions were not pure and noble and entirely based on friendship.


	71. JJBella: Slow Burn

JJ was eight, Isabella seven. They solemnly exchanged plastic spider rings on the playground at school, vowing to love each other forever, while an older boy officiated and their friends witnessed. When their friends hollered for them to kiss, though... they both ran. _Gross._

Through middle school, the two of them were best friends. Their first year of high school, Isabella saw a girl flirting with JJ and realized she was jealous. She didn’t say anything to JJ, but when JJ declined to go out with that girl, she was so relieved.

Neither of them dated at all their first two years of high school. When asked why, JJ always said he didn’t have time, thanks to his competition schedule, charity work, and multitudinous siblings. When asked why, Isabella blamed her charity work, her work with JJ’s Girls, and a desire not to be That Girl who was married and pregnant within six months of graduating high school.

Toward the end of their junior year, JJ realized that there was more to his not dating than just not having time. Otabek pointed out that he always had time for Isabella, and if he didn’t, he made the time. Surely he could do the same for a girlfriend. JJ’s retort that the only girlfriend he wanted was Isabella left his mouth before he had any idea that he was going to say it, but once it was said, he couldn’t take it back. It was true.

He talked to Isabella the next day, promising to respect her time and her desire to delay marriage and children until whenever she was ready for them, and Isabella joyfully responded that those were all excuses - the reason she wasn’t dating was because she thought the one boy she wanted was too busy for a girlfriend.


	72. Sastiel: Enemies to Lovers

Sam was meant to be the star of the show. Lucifer’s writing, Michael’s directing, Chuck’s production... it was all based on the idea that Sam was the big star. Castiel, the production assistant assigned to wrangle Sam, was the one who got stuck in the middle of Sam’s fights with the bosses, as Sam insisted on sharing the lead with his brother Dean. Privately, Castiel agreed with Sam. Dean’s character was compelling, and the real story here was the relationship between the two. However, Michael and Lucifer made his life a living hell any time Sam started kicking up a fuss, so Castiel hated Sam.

Things only got worse when the focus group results started coming back - and they sided with Sam over Michael and Lucifer. Dean needed to be a bigger part of the show. The first few weeks of rewrites and reshoots are awful.

Then things get better. Sam’s happier, Dean’s happier, the show’s been greenlit and a full season ordered, and suddenly Michael and Lucifer are pitching this show about their two lead characters like it had been their idea all along. With the mood on-set picking up, Castiel had time to really get to know Sam.

He was there the day Lucifer’s revenge dropped. Sam read the script calling for his character to kiss Dean’s. “I know the fans are shipping us, and I get the whole thing with representation and all, but... Dean and I are brothers. How the hell are we supposed to play lovers?”

This time, Castiel stood with Sam and Dean. When they walked off set on strike, Castiel was the first one following them. The strike only lasted ten days before the producers stepped in. Lucifer was fired, and Gabriel brought on to replace him. Sam and Castiel celebrated by hooking up.


	73. SaMichael: Slow Burn

Michael was the golden boy senior, the one whose rivalry with Dean defined the school atmosphere that year. Sam was the precocious freshman who fell hard for the only boy he’d ever known who could keep up with his hero big brother. Michael, being the honorable sort, refused to make a move on the kid with the stars in his eyes, but he was intrigued, and kept an eye on him even after graduation.

Michael did four years of university at Stanford, and then decided to become a cop. He was called in when an apartment complex near the school burned down with a girl trapped inside, and he recognized Sam and Dean outside staring at the building. It turned out the girl trapped inside was Sam’s girlfriend. Michael let the jealousy come. It would fuel his investigation, motivate him to get closure for Sam and put the girl’s killer behind bars.

He also convinced Sam not to drop out of college - take a quarter off if he needed to, get his head right, but law school was waiting for him and if Jess was an amazing enough person for Sam to love, then chances were the last thing she’d want is for him to give up his dream because of her death. Sam agrees, and decides that the routine of classes is exactly what he needs, so he talks to his professors to take incompletes for the fall quarter and works his ass off to get everything done both for finishing that and his winter quarter classes.

Michael comes to his graduation. When Sam finds Michael to thank him for the motivation and the support, Michael has news for him: they found the guy who set the fire. They cut a deal with him: he rolled on a much more dangerous criminal, one who had been abducting people. Sam was due to be abducted after he was away from school and vulnerable. With the case closed, Michael has a question for Sam. Sam doesn’t let him get it out before they’re kissing.


	74. SaRaphael: Fake Dating

Gabriel signed Raphael up for one of those awful reality shows. Dean did the same thing to Sam. The two quickly agreed to a showmance as part of their strategy to win. All goes well until the final four, when they were supposed to turn on each other. By then, the showmance had evolved - who knew that playing a role 24/7 for a month would internalize like that?

They end up being the final two, and although Raphael wins the voting, the producers declare them co-winners and keep inviting them back for future seasons to host games and sow chaos. Their wedding ends up being a Very Special Big Brother Event.


	75. Georgi/Mari/Seung Gil: Slow Burn

It all started as a joke. At Viktor’s wedding, someone suggested that Georgi and Mari should hook up, since Georgi liked being in Viktor’s shadow so much. Georgi was not amused, but he did like Mari.

Also at Viktor’s wedding, alcohol flowed freely as only a Russian wedding does. The drunker Seung Gil got, the more flirtatious, and Georgi ended up his fixation for the duration of the party. Georgi had never been interested in a guy before, but somehow, Seung Gil got past that.

For months after the wedding, Georgi spent most of his free time talking to the two of them, but found himself paralyzed by indecision. Both of them were great people, and if he could just decide on one to date and one to be friends with, he’d be happy to make a move. He just couldn’t decide.

One day he logged into Instagram to see a bizarre update - Seung Gil and Mari, in Saint Petersburg, holding hands with their other hands stretched out. It was captioned “What’s wrong with this picture? Something’s missing... or someone.”


	76. Leojichu: Fake Dating

It was Phichit’s idea, of course. He’d stumbled across a website devoted to analyzing his social media looking for hints of a boyfriend or girlfriend, and found the conclusion that it was either Leo or Guang Hong. Both boys were amused, especially since the main counter was that they were obviously dating each other. Convincing the two of them to go along with a trolling of this website by planting “hints” in their social media? Not hard at all.

What was hard was staging the hints. Phichit really should have seen this coming, but he didn’t. Leo and Guang Hong pointed and laughed at him for it when he came clean about developing real feelings. “I thought that’s why you set this up! You didn’t know how to ask us if we could be a triad so you set up a fake one as a way of getting through the topic!”


	77. Victor/Chris/Yuuri: Enemies to Lovers

It really wasn’t fair to hate Chris. Yuuri barely knew him. What he did know, and why Yuuri hated him, was that he was supposed to be Viktor’s boyfriend but every time Yuuri saw him, he was flirting with someone else. Or kissing them. A couple memorable times, he’d walked in on Chris fucking someone else. But then when he saw Chris and Viktor together, everything seemed to be sunshine and roses between them.

Chris had no idea what he was supposed to have done to Yuuri. He’d been trying since juniors to befriend the kid, flirting like he did with everyone, only to be consistently and thoroughly pushed away. Yuuri wasn’t the most social of skaters, so Chris tried not to take it personally, but he’s really not used to failure.

Viktor is on the phone with Chris a *lot* after going to Japan. He’s so confused why Yuuri is pushing him away. Chris is sympathetic, but has no helpful advice. After all, if he understood Yuuri, they’d be friends.

It comes to a head at the Cup of China. After the short program, Yuuri asks Viktor if he and Chris had a fight. Viktor is very confused at first, until Yuuri explains. “Chris and I aren’t boyfriends! You may have noticed, Chris likes to flirt, and there have been times when I needed a soft place to fall. Or a good hard fuck to help me forget whatever’s bothering me. Chris used to be that for me.”

“Used to be? What happened?”

“The Sochi banquet happened. You know, this explains so much. Is this why you hate Chris? You thought he was cheating on me?”

“Well... yeah...”

“I never asked Chris for any kind of loyalty. There were times I thought about it, but he has so much fun, and I... I didn’t want to deal with other people hating me for taking Chris off the market, and I was afraid Chris would get bored. Then I met you, and as near as I can tell you’ve never been on the market...”

“Like anyone would want me if I were.”

“Chris does. Or did. I don’t know. He’d never make a serious move, not now, but he’s been interested in you for years.”

They do the obvious thing of calling Chris in there. Misunderstandings clear up, and they promise to have a lot of fun together after the free skate. Chris only pouts a little about the tacklekiss, and only because he was busy and couldn’t come join them.


	78. Sastiel: Cuddle Time

Castiel stared at Sam. “I’m sorry. I don’t think I’m understanding this. You want me to what?”

“Cuddle me. I know it sounds weird, but I’ve been doing some research. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but something’s wrong with me. This is an experiment, really, but it’s gotta be worth a shot. I know you’re in the middle of a war, but angel or not, you need to take breaks sometimes. You get a break where you’re away from the constant demands and can just think about things or even watch TV and let things stew in the back of your brain, and I get someone to touch me just as a friend. I’ve tried getting laid, but there’s something missing in it.”

“You really think… taking a break… will be good for the war effort?” Castiel didn’t see how, but even restored to his full power and granted more as a seraph, his time with his grace fading or almost gone had left him dealing with far more human thought patterns than he was used to. Maybe this would help.

“I really do. It’s worth a try, and with angel radio and all it’s not like you’re completely cut off if an emergency comes up.”

“So why do you want to be touched all of a sudden? You’ve always avoided it before.”

Sam’s brow furrowed. “See, this is part of what’s wrong with me. Before, I always felt guilty about wanting to be touched. When we were kids, Dean and I were all over each other, but Dad started breaking it up as we got older. He said we were too old for that and if we were gonna be hunters, we needed to be men. He made me feel ashamed of wanting someone to hold me or hug me or play with my hair. I was doing better in college, Jess and the school counselor helped undo some of that damage, but then the visions and the demon blood and the crap with Lucifer just brought back all that unclean feeling and I shut it off. The rare hugs I did get, I never wanted to end. I wanted so much more. But, see, I didn’t think I deserved it.”

“And now you do? Because you jumped into hell?”

Sam shrugged. “I don’t know. I just… I don’t feel ashamed of wanting to be touched anymore, and my research says that humans are social and tactile creatures who can go crazy if they don’t get the touch they need. Maybe before, I was willing to risk that, but now? Like I said. It may not fix me, but it can’t hurt to try.”

Castiel stepped closer to Sam, tentatively wrapping his arms around the hunter. Sam hugged back, and with Sam’s arms around him, Castiel felt more at peace than he had since he’d first been sent to Hell. Maybe part of his new human thought processes included needing someone to touch his vessel, as well.

 

It became a frequent thing – twice a week or so Sam would pray to Castiel, and Castiel would answer and immediately hug Sam. He’d been right about Castiel, and even though it hadn’t fixed whatever was wrong with Sam, it had made him happier and he enjoyed the time they spent together. Castiel was afraid that after Sam and Dean reunited that it would stop, that with Dean back involved Sam’s old shame would return, but it didn’t.

After restoring Sam’s soul, Castiel was afraid he’d never hear from Sam again. When he heard Sam reaching out to him, he was overjoyed – not only was Sam awake, it seemed like he wished to continue their arrangement. But then Sam ducked his attempt to hug him, and Castiel realized he didn’t remember any of what had happened while he was soulless. He wasn’t going to second-guess Death for putting that time behind the wall, but he was going to second-guess Dean and Bobby for not telling him anything. If Sam needed to not scratch that wall, then he needed to know what had happened. When he explained their cuddle arrangement, Sam’s jaw dropped. “And you agreed to that?”

“I did. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Thanks to the time taking a break, I’ve been able to put some pieces together to figure out next steps. I’m very close to a permanent solution, a way to destroy Raphael. If you’re no longer comfortable with the arrangement, I understand, but your soulless self said that you wanted a lot more physical affection than you were getting. If you’ll accept it, I’m happy to continue providing.”


	79. Sastiel: "Baptize me."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning: a bit harsh on Dean.

Pancakes are fluffy and Dean’s pancakes were tasty and Sam, for once, was letting himself indulge. They’d only just gotten the real Dean back after losing him to demonhood for months, and if it made Dean feel forgiven for Sam to eat the pancakes he made, then by God, Sam was going to eat the pancakes.

So it was extra annoying when Castiel made him choke and spit out a bite of the delicious treat. “I’m sorry, what was that?”

“I want you to baptize me,” Castiel repeated. “If Dean dies again, he becomes a demon again, and we’ll need to cure him again. If you’re not available to cure him, you’ll need me to, and it works better if the person is baptized. If I don’t die when my grace burns out, I’ll be human again and need it.”

“Okay, but… why me?” Sam asked. “Shouldn’t you see a priest or a reverend or someone ordained?”

“I don’t trust religious officials. So many of them are hypocrites and liars, using their position of power to abuse others or spread teaching that is contrary to the true path. I know I could find one of the good ones, like Jim Murphy was, or David Gideon.” Castiel stepped closer to Sam. “Or I could ask the one person I know who has undergone the Trials of Hell and thus purified himself, someone personally granted salvation by God himself, and one of the lead characters of the Book of Winchester. Human religions get so much wrong, but you… I have never known you to do anything but the best you knew given the information you had.”

Dean cleared his throat. “Uh, Cas?”

Castiel spun on Dean, glaring him down. “We didn’t reach him in time. He thought killing Lilith stopped the Apocalypse, not started it, and until my last-second revelation you or I would have done the same. We all forget that far too often, and Sam, I apologize for that.”

“Purgatory? He left us there to rot!”

“He had every reason to believe us dead. You in Heaven, me resting in oblivion. With the information he had, he was doing the right thing by not trying to bring us back to Earth.” Dean opened his mouth to argue some more, and Castiel growled. “Blaming him for that is wrong, and it’s cruel. _Get over it._ ”

Dean threw down his fork and stormed off to his bedroom. Sam expected Castiel to go after him, but he didn’t. “That was a little harsh, don’t you think?” he said when it became obvious Castiel wasn’t going anywhere.

“Maybe a little harshness will get through to him.” Castiel turned back to Sam. “So? Will you do it?”

“Uh, I guess, why not? How do you want to do it? Full immersion, sprinkling water, anointing with oil…”

“It might be a little odd, but since I’m asking you to do it, I was thinking we could take a shower together. I can bless the pipes to produce holy water. After all, baptism is for the washing away of sin, is it not?”

Sam burst into laughter. “That sounds perfect. Let me finish my pancakes, and then I’ll be right with you.”

While Sam ate, he quickly refreshed his memory of baptisms. It had been a long time since his, and it’s not like he regularly attended church. Castiel had blessed the pipes and undressed while he waited for Sam, so Sam hurried to strip and join him under the water. “Jesus said: ‘All authority in Heaven and on Earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’ Do you accept this baptism?”

“I do.”

“…This is the part where I ask the sponsors what they think. Do we need a sponsor?”

“We have one. Hannah may not be here, but she is aware of the ceremony and sends her testimony that it is her belief that I will be a faithful servant of my chosen faith.”

“Fair enough, then.” Sam cupped his hand against his body to catch some of the falling water to draw the cross on Castiel’s forehead. “Then in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, I baptize you. Amen.”

“Amen.”


	80. Viktuuri: "If Only In My Dreams"

This was a dream. Yuuri was dreaming. He had to be.

You could tell he was dreaming because Viktor was sitting on the edge of his bed, looking at him like he was looking at the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

You could tell he was dreaming because Viktor was reaching for him like a man in the desert reached for water, like he’d die if he couldn’t reach it.

You could tell he was dreaming because instead of freezing or running, Yuuri walked into Viktor’s reach and sat in Viktor’s lap, straddling his legs.

Viktor’s hands came up to rest on Yuuri’s hips. “I love you so much.”

“I love you, too,” Yuuri said. It was a dream. He wasn’t embarrassing himself by playing along with Viktor. He moved in for the kiss, and Viktor opened up right away, letting Yuuri in without hesitation. He didn’t protest a bit as Yuuri pushed him down onto the bed. If anything, Viktor seemed to be very much enjoying this, if the growing pressure against Yuuri’s crotch was anything to go by.

He’d had this dream before, and this was always the part where he woke up. After all, who would believe that Viktor would want him like this? Even he couldn’t. Suspension of disbelief was gone. The dream should be dissolving any minute now as Yuuri woke up in his bed alone. Still with the boner, of course. That part was real.

This time, the dream seemed to be going a bit longer, so Yuuri pushed ahead. He undid the buttons on Viktor’s shirt, pulling him up off the bed long enough to slide the shirt back off his shoulders and toss it aside. Viktor’s chest gleamed in the soft lighting, and Yuuri couldn’t stop staring.

“Yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuri, come back down here!” Viktor complained, tugging on Yuuri’s shirt. Yuuri didn’t obey immediately. First he needed to get his shirt off. He locked his eyes on Viktor’s, not breaking eye contact until the shirt blocked his view. He was absolutely certain that once he lost sight of Viktor, reality would intrude and wake him up.

He was absolutely wrong. Viktor whined, this time tugging on Yuuri’s belt loops to get Yuuri to come back down to him. Yuuri complied. More kissing before he woke up wouldn’t hurt anything, and it would make his dream of Viktor happy.

Yuuri was just getting comfortable enough to reach for Viktor’s pants when he heard the pounding. There was no warning before a brown blur slammed into him, knocking him into Viktor and making the other man groan. “Makkachin! Why?” Viktor took one hand off Yuuri’s chest to push at Makkachin. “Why are you interrupting us?”

Makkachin barked. She wouldn’t stop barking. Yuuri closed his eyes.

 

When he woke up, Makkachin was barking at him, and Viktor was staring at him with a soft, if confused, smile. “Yuuri?”

“What?” Yuuri blinked a couple times and reached for his glasses. “What’s wrong?”

“You were yelling for Makkachin in your sleep. Were you having a bad dream? Did you need her to come protect you?”

Yuuri skritched Makkachin’s ears. “Come on. Makkachin is a very good companion, but as a guard dog, she’s useless. She loves people too much.”

“People who don’t know her don’t know that, and she is a rather large dog!” Viktor chirped. “What were you dreaming about?”

“I was… uh…” Yuuri buried his face in his hands. “I was having a dream I used to have all the time. First time since Sochi, since it doesn’t really make sense anymore.”

“Tell me about it?”

“From the time I was twelve, I used to dream about seducing you. It never really got all that far, I kept waking up before getting anywhere close to the good parts, but I was always aware it was a dream because the thought of it being real was just so inconceivable.” Yuuri set his glasses aside and rolled into Viktor. “I was always in there long enough to wake up with a problem, though. Help me solve it?”


	81. Otayuriseung: Sweater Paws and Cuddling

There were times Yuri hated that he’d grown so much taller than his boyfriends. He was 184 cm, while Seung Gil was 170 and Otabek 169. The two of them could trade clothes back and forth with no problems at all, but none of their stuff fit Yuri very well.

Okay, in summer, wearing their shorts sure made for some good times. He was a figure skater and a dancer. He’d put his legs up against anyone’s. And their shirts could sometimes make good crop tops for him. In winter, though? Nope. No chance.

On the other hand, there were things like this. Seung Gil had a fire going, and now he and Otabek were both wearing one of Yuri’s sweaters. It was adorable, how the sleeves completely covered their hands, and it sure made cuddle time nice. Christmas didn’t mean anything to Yuri and it didn’t mean much to Otabek, but it was kind of a big thing for Seung Gil. Viktor had absolutely no room to tell Yuri off for the distraction, having his boys come in for Nationals, and with it being in Moscow this year they could spend Christmas with Nikolai. Not that Nikolai gave a damn about the holiday, but the chance to see Yuri and his boys was always welcome. Otabek had skipped Kazakhstan’s nationals because he was in the Grand Prix Finals that week, and Seung Gil’s nationals were in January, so they could be together now.

Viktor had taken the day off, after extracting a promise to practice from Yuri, so that he could be with Yuuri and their kids for his birthday. Yuri had planned to go out shopping, but then it turned out to be cold, so he, Otabek, and Seung Gil took the excuse to stay home huddled around a fire in sweaters with hot chocolate. Otabek and Seung Gil with sweater paws? Icing. Perfect. They were so cute.


	82. Sastiel: Being gifted tickets to see a family member overseas, but having to leave their S/O at home for christmas, not expecting them to turn up on their doorstep on christmas morning with a bouquet of roses.

The only way to be sure John wouldn’t come barging back into his life was to leave the country, and for Sam, the only way to do that was to get a scholarship and a lot of outside funding. His junior year of high school, one of his guidance counselors was an angel in disguise, because she introduced him to a program that looked for diamonds in the rough and helped them polish themselves up.

The upshot: after two years of very hard work, Sam landed in Oxford, living with Michael and Naomi Godwin and their children while attending the university there. It was amazing, but... Sam was homesick, too.

The day before school let out, Castiel took Sam aside. Castiel was the Godwin closest to Sam’s age, at twenty, and easily Sam’s favorite of the family. “Happy Christmas, Sam.” He handed Sam an envelope, which Sam opened to find a plane ticket to Wichita and a letter from his brother begging him to come home for Christmas, promising to let him go back after the holidays and that their dad would be busy in Minnesota the whole time. John wouldn’t talk about it, just said that it wasn’t a hunt and Dean wouldn’t understand.

The thought of Dean being alone on Christmas was enough for Sam not to protest, even though he’d been looking forward to Christmas with a proper family this year. Even though it meant leaving Castiel and this... thing... growing between them behind for a month. Would it still be here when he got back, or would Castiel forget and move on? There were at least three people Sam could think of who would pounce if they saw any sign he’d welcome it.

That would just have to be future him’s problem, though, if it happened. Tonight, Christmas Eve, he was with Dean, they’d settled right back into being brothers, and Dean was totally ragging on him for having three months and still not having managed to get to a point beyond “I think I like him and it kind of seems like he likes me but I’m not sure and I don’t want things to be awkward if I’m wrong or things go bad.”

A knock at the motel room door startled them both, and they exchanged glances. “You expecting anyone, Dean? Found a girl?”

“Nope, you?”

“Who would I be expecting?”

“Well, I’m still the older brother, so you get to be the one to deal with this,” Dean said, kicking his feet up on the bed and making a show of settling in to watch the Lakers game. Sam rolled his eyes and headed for the door.

His resentment vanished immediately when he saw who it was. The roses were nice, but Sam really didn’t care about them right now, because that was Castiel holding them. “What in the... how are you here?”

“Dad overruled Mum and sent me to ‘go get my man’ for Christmas,” Castiel said in his beautiful raspy voice. “I think he was sick of me moping and bringing everyone else down.” He held the roses out to Sam. “Will you be my Christmas present this year?”

“Yes!” Sam took the roses and wrapped Castiel up with his free arm. “Best Christmas ever.”


	83. Sastiel: Crawling into their roommate’s (S/O’s) bed because it is too cold in their own and they want cuddles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Sam and Castiel meeting.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12721887/chapters/29012160)   
>  [Dean stalking Sam and Castiel](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16035251/chapters/38854304)

Sam was exhausted. The last thing he needed after a long-ass day of finals was to get home to find the heater in his dorm had shut down. Castiel groaned and headed across the hall while Sam stole the blanket from Castiel’s bed to add to the warmth trappers on his. Even with the extra blanket, he was shivering by the time Castiel got back.

“The heat’s off in the whole building and no one can reach the maintenance people,” Castiel complained. “I’ll be fine, obviously, but would you like me to take you somewhere else?”

Sam thought it over. As tempting as it was to have Cas take him to Mexico or something, there were some slight problems. “No, I think I can handle this, and if someone comes looking there’s no awkward questions.”

“As you say.” Castiel went over to his desk and opened his linguistics textbook. “Speaking of awkward questions, Antonio said that he saw that man that keeps asking about us talking to Jing and Christi. I showed him the picture and he confirmed it. Dean’s been around.”

Sam heaved the biggest sigh he could manage through the shivers. “I guess that’s better than it being Dad asking around. You told Antonio to tell everyone to tell him to either fuck off or man up and come talk to me, right?”

“Yes, I told him,” Castiel said. “He said he’d spread the word, so we can hope that Dean will come by soon.”

“And just hope he hasn’t gotten too wrong an impression about us?”

“Yes, exactly. Why do people keep getting such ideas about us?” Castiel picked up the book and came over to Sam. “Scoot over.”

Sam obeyed, curious to see what Castiel was doing. Castiel pulling the blankets back so that he could get under them as well, that made sense, he was warm and the shared body heat could help Sam. The arm around him, petting his hair, that made sense too. Castiel loved petting Sam’s hair and took any excuse he could get to do it, since he’d noticed how much Sam enjoyed it too.

The weight across Sam’s back, well, that was odd. He craned his neck trying to see what was happening. Castiel dug his fingers into Sam’s hair to keep his head focused on the linguistics book. “You’re not going to see anything. They’re incomprehensible by mortals. Your eyes would burn out, and that’s if you’re lucky enough not to just die. I’m a bit surprised you can feel them.”

“Feel what? What exactly am I feeling here?” Sam asked. It was soft, warm, powerful, but it felt like a wall more than anything else. Sam couldn’t make sense of it.

“My wings. I’m using them as a blanket to help warm you.”

Sam’s jaw dropped, and he stared at Castiel in awe. He rarely thought about where, exactly, Castiel came from anymore. He was just a friend like any of the others he’d made, although closer. Castiel noticed and resumed petting Sam’s hair. “I’m still me. Don’t let this change anything between us.”

“I know, I know, it’s just… I have no idea why you got sent here, but I’m so glad you were. You’re exactly what I’ve needed here, and I had no idea I would. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. However, we still have a final to survive tomorrow, so shall we study?”

“Yeah.” Sam cuddled in against Castiel and focused on the textbook in their laps.


	84. Viktuuri: Ice skating and them BOTH BEING REALLY GOOD ACTUALLY.

The man certainly had the charisma. Yuuri would believe it if he said he was a king. He looked a lot like Viktor Nikiforov, too, but he didn’t have Viktor’s iconic long hair. He was holding out a hand to Yuuri, having asked, “Shall we skate?”

Yuuri jumped, suddenly realizing that he really ought to answer. “Sure. Let’s go.”

The guy may look like Viktor, but Yuuri wasn’t going to just assume that the guy could skate like Viktor. Yuuri figured they’d do some side-by-side laps of the rink, maybe a little spinning or possibly some small tricks, but nothing like he would expect to be able to do with the real Viktor Nikiforov.

Surprisingly, not-Viktor was the one to push Yuuri into trying more and more difficult things - wiggles, spins, turns, he even started a jump contest. Singles, okay, doubles, Yuuri was starting to wonder what was going on, but when the guy hit a perfect triple flip... “That was impressive! How long have you been skating? Do you compete?”

“Since I was very young - perhaps three? I don’t remember my first skating lesson, I just know that I was put on skates very young. Yes, I compete. I do pretty well, most people seem to think.” Not-Viktor gave him a brilliant heart-shaped smile. “Just don’t ask my coach! He thinks I don’t take it seriously enough.”

Yuuri chuckled softly. “My coach keeps telling me to lighten up and have more fun with it. It’s not that I do badly, he just thinks I could do better if I’d stop taking it so seriously that I pressure myself into a breakdown.”

“Celestino’s probably right. He usually is, from what I’ve heard talking to other skaters of his at competitions.”

Yuuri turned to stare at Not-Viktor. “You know who I am?”

“Of course I know who you are! Yakov’s had me watching you for over a year now. At first, I didn’t understand why, but when I looked closer I could see it easily. One day, hopefully not too long from now, you’re going to be at the Grand Prix Finals with me. You might even beat me!”

“But...” Yuuri stared hard at Not-Viktor. Aside from the hair, he couldn’t see anything that would make this not Viktor, and he said his coach was Yakov. That had to be Feltsman. “Did you cut your hair recently?”

“Yesterday. You just lost me a bet with Georgi - I was sure you’d recognize me even without the haircut. I know you’re a fan.”

Yuuri’s first instinct was to run, but he couldn’t. Not on the ice, Viktor would catch him easily, and if by some miracle he made it off the ice it wouldn’t be any easier to get away. “I did recognize you, sort of. I just thought... you’ve had that long hair since you were, what, fifteen? Why would you cut it off? But I guess you did, so...”

“Hmmm. I’ll have to ask Yakov to rule, in that case.” Viktor’s smile beamed out again. “I cut it off because I woke up one too many times to find myself trapped in bed with Makkachin lying on my hair!”


	85. Sastiel: Buying animal-proof fairy lights, confusing their S/O, but it all makes sense when there’s an ENTIRE puppy in their living room on christmas day.

The habits of a lifetime of crime were hard to break. Aside from weapons, which needed to be as high-quality as they could get, Sam and Dean had always gone for the cheapest shit available. When you were lucky to get six months out of a shirt before it got stained with ichor or blood or some other godawful remnant fluid, it didn’t really matter if it had started falling apart by then.

Living in Lebanon, drawing an honest-to-god salary from old Men of Letters bank accounts that had been untouched since the 1950s, Sam was starting to change some of those habits. He had some good clothes that didn’t go on hunting trips, he’d invested in truly high-quality bedding, there were honest-to-god fresh vegetables in the refrigerator on a regular basis, and he had some truly amazing technology at his fingertips now.

Still, shopping for Christmas decorations with Castiel, Sam was gravitating toward the cheapest stuff he could find. They were already tempting fate badly enough by planning to celebrate this Christmas; why push their luck by expecting to need the decorations in the future?

Castiel, it would seem, disagreed. He insisted that they needed to buy a much more expensive type of Christmas lights. “They’re animal-safe, Sam.”

“So? Is this some sort of crack about Dean’s grooming habits?”

“No. Just trust me. It will all make sense soon.”

 

Sam decided to trust Castiel, and the lights were pretty strung up around the library. Jack refused to go to bed unless Sam went too, so Sam found himself in bed early on Christmas Eve. He needed it, too, as he fell asleep almost immediately. He had no idea when Castiel had come in to lie with him, but when he woke up, it was with an angel’s wing over him instead of a normal blanket. “Mmmm. Merry Christmas to me.”

“Good morning.” Castiel kissed Sam’s nose. “As much as I’d like to stay here, I believe Jack is awake and likely has gotten into the nougat Dean got him for Christmas. We should get out there before he can destroy anything.”

The laughter burst out of Sam, and he reluctantly rolled out of bed. “Fine. But we’re coming back later.”

“I certainly hope so.” Castiel led the way out to the library.

Sam stopped short as soon as he stepped in. “Is that... Cas, am I hallucinating, or is there a puppy in the library with a bow around its neck?”

“You’re not hallucinating. There is a puppy in the library with a bow around its neck.” Castiel kissed Sam’s cheek. “Merry Christmas. Jack picked him out when I took him to the shelter last week, and I verified that he would be a good fit for our family.”

Sam dropped to his knees, holding a hand out to the beautiful mutt. He couldn’t even begin to guess a dominant breed. It didn’t matter. This puppy was made of pure love, he could tell already as it bounced across the room to sniff at him.


	86. Sastiel: Spilling hot chocolate/coffee/a hot-fucking-beverage on the other and insisting on paying for a new drink and new clothes for them, unaware that they’re rich and very capable of buying themselves another coffee.

“Tall people. They are such assholes.” Sam would glare at the man, but he had just walked into the hottest man he’d ever seen, spilling coffee all over his clothes. He could understand why Hottie McHotface would be upset. Of course, that didn’t justify his shorter, less-attractive companion to start complaining.

Hottie McHotface rolled his eyes. “It was an accident, Gabriel, I’m sure he didn’t mean any harm.” To Sam, he added, “Don’t worry about it, and ignore my cousin.”

“That’s what I mean!” Gabriel shouted. “These tall people, wandering around, completely ignoring the little guys...”

“I am so sorry,” Sam interrupted before Gabriel could really get into the rant. “Please, let me pay to replace the ruined clothes, or at least buy you a coffee.”

“I do need to replace the clothes, but I don’t expect you to pay for them. This was an accident.” Sam opened his mouth to protest again, but Hottie McHotface cut him off. “I’ll tell you what. Come shopping with me to find my new clothes. Once you see what I’ve picked out, you can decide if you’re going to pay for them or buy me a coffee and call it good.”

“Oh please, why even bother giving him a chance to pay for anything?” Gabriel said.

“Because just as I suspect he’s misjudging us, it’s entirely possible we’re misjudging him. Remember Chuck.”

Gabriel backed away, hands in the air. “Fine, your funeral. Bye!” He walked away hurriedly, and Sam snorted as he walked straight into a woman wearing a beautiful - and most likely highly expensive - red dress, spilling her drink all over it.

Hottie McHotface chuckled. “Wonderful. She’ll eat him alive if he doesn’t make proper amends quickly. Come on.” He started walking off. “By the way, I don’t think I introduced myself between my cousin’s idiocy. I’m Castiel Santos. Yes, Castiel. Yes, really. Yes, it’s a man’s name, at the very least it’s mine. No, my parents didn’t hate me.”

“If Gabriel and Samuel can be men’s names, why not Castiel? I’m Samuel, by the way, but I prefer Sam. I take it you meet a lot of idiots?”

“You have no idea.” Castiel kept walking in silence, turning into a store that had Sam feeling queasy just from the door. When they got inside, he realized why Castiel was being so generous about giving him the out. Chances were, whatever Castiel picked out would end up costing more than Sam had in his entire bank account. Sam could feel the judgment of his shabby hand-me-down outfit in every breath he took.

Castiel took his time picking out his new outfit, checking Sam’s opinion on a lot of things. The pants he ended up going with were Sam’s favorite, because they were just a little too tight in the back. Castiel didn’t seem to mind, even when he realized why Sam liked them.

The total came to just under $3500, and Castiel winked at Sam. “So... coffee?”

“Coffee. Thanks for not being a dick about this, I really do feel bad about it.”

Castiel’s blue eyes sparkled. “Bad enough to stick around and keep me company while I drink the coffee?”

“Sure. What happened with Chuck?”

Castiel smirked. “Gabriel’s father decided to teach his sons a lesson about judging people by their appearance. He borrowed some clothes from one of his employees, mussed his hair a little... and the only one of his four sons to recognize him was the eldest, Michael. To the best of my knowledge, Luke still isn’t talking to anyone from the family.”


	87. Sam/Chuck: Falling asleep in the passenger seat whilst their S/O drives them to a family members house for christmas, but not wanting to wake them for further directions because they look so p e a c e f u l.

For Christmas, Chuck had given Sam a gift. It wasn’t much of one, just a simple piece of knowledge, but for Sam? Knowing that he had a half-sister was huge. He’d shared with Dean, of course, there was no way to stop that, but the gift was for Sam.

Sam had been the one to do the work to find her and see how she was and what she was doing. Breanna Winters had no idea who her father was, but was actively looking. After some fighting and soul-searching, Sam had decided that Breanna deserved answers, and gotten Dean to agree to at least let him go even if he didn’t want to.

The drive to Chillicothe, Ohio, was mildly interesting. Sam had done most of the driving, but unlike Dean, he was perfectly happy to admit to being tired and needing to sleep before they got there. He’d tuned the radio station to soft rock, laughed at the first song they played being Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel”, and then fallen right to sleep. Chuck couldn’t help looking over at him every couple minutes. Despite the awkward fit of a giant man sleeping in the tiny space, Sam looked so natural and content there that he couldn’t help smiling every time.

Of course, now there was a problem. Sam was the one with the GPS and the address. Chuck could get to Chillicothe, but now that they were in town, he didn’t know how to get to Breanna’s home. He could wake Sam up, but Sam’s sleep was still so disturbed even after Chuck and Castiel had helped him realize just how good a person he is. The nightmares were still taking some time to get the memo.

Or he could tap into the God powers. He tried not to, for things like this, but it would work. The Impala steered itself toward a house. Sam woke up with the car came to a stop. “We’re there?”

“We’re there. Are you ready?”

“No.” Sam got out of the car anyway, heading for the door. The woman who answered looked a great deal like John. “Breanna Winters?”

“That’s me. Who are you?”

“I’m Sam Winchester, and this is my…” Sam flushed lightly. “My husband Chuck. It’s a little complicated, but I think you’re my half-sister.”

“Which half?”

“My dad. I know I have at least one half-sibling, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he had other kids I never knew about. Dad was not big on sharing information that he didn’t think we needed to know.”

“Come on inside, let’s talk. Any proof?”

“Yeah. Here.” Sam handed over the DNA profile he’d run and compared to the one on file for her. They matched well as half-siblings.

“Awesome. I can’t wait to get to know my family.”


	88. Jammy: Remember Me

If it weren’t for the driver’s license with the picture that matched what he saw in the mirror, James wouldn’t know his own name. The memories he did have made no sense. He remembered being powerful and helpless at the same time, being absolutely sure he was doing the right thing and doubting every moment of it, so many conflicts in his head. None of it made sense. None of it worked together. None of it could tell him who these two men staring at him were. One of them had a gun on him and was shouting at him; the other was staring at him like a betrayed lover. That didn’t make sense either. James couldn’t say who the woman and girl in the photograph in his wallet were, but the photograph made it obvious they were his wife and daughter. Why would this man be staring at him like that?

“Come on Cas, this isn’t funny, don’t make me shoot you.”

“Please don’t shoot me, that would hurt,” James said. Something about the name Cas tickled his brain, but it didn’t tell him much. “Who are you guys?”

“Uh, this… Castiel? Not funny, what’s going on here?” He turned to the taller man. “You wanna say anything, Sammy?”

“Jimmy?” Sammy whispered. “Is that you, Jimmy?”

Jimmy, at least, sounded like it could be a nickname for James. “Yes. I’m Jimmy. Who are you?”

“I’m Sam Winchester, this is my brother Dean… you don’t remember us? At all?” Sam took a step toward him. “You don’t remember… what do you remember?”

“Very little. I’m sorry, I have no idea who you are or why you think I should know you.”

Dean reached out and patted Sam’s shoulder. “Do you remember Castiel?” he asked Jimmy.

“No. I have no idea who or what that is.”

“Great.” Dean headed for the door. “I’m gonna call Bobby, maybe Ellen, see if we can figure out something. You deal with your… whatever the hell you guys called it.”

Jimmy looked expectantly at Sam as the door closed. Sam took a long breath and sat on the bed, motioning for Jimmy to sit opposite him. “You and I were… it’s really complicated. We’ve known each other since I was a freshman in high school. We lost touch when my dad yanked me out of school with no warning to move halfway across the country, and the next time I saw you, you’d married and had a child. You and Amelia love each other, but not… not like everyone thinks you do. You’re gay, she’s ace, but both of your families are heavily religious and don’t accept either thing.”

“So how’d we have a kid?”

“Artificial insemination, Amelia said. When you came back into my life, you were hosting an angel. Castiel. He’s… he’s a decent guy. He’d occasionally let you take control of your body so we could have some time together. Tonight was supposed to be date night for us, but when Dean and I got here, you started screaming, there was a lot of light and loud noise, and then… nothing. We’d gone outside to investigate, and when we got back… you had no idea who we were.”

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I wish I knew what to tell you, but I don’t. I remember nothing.”

“I’m getting that.”

“Could you… do you think that if you kissed me, it would help me remember?”

“I don’t know. Are you sure you…”

“Yeah, I’m sure, it’s worth a try, right? Because the only other idea I’ve got is to talk to Amelia, and somehow, I don’t expect she’ll be very happy with any of this.”

Sam nodded and moved to sit beside Jimmy. He reached up, carefully watching Jimmy’s face for any sign of doubt or hesitance, until the last second when he closed his hypnotic sunflower eyes and pressed his lips to Jimmy.

Jimmy let instinct take over as he kissed back. Everything about this felt right, even Sam pulling back when Jimmy started reaching to get clothes off. “Jimmy, we…”

“Claire. My daughter’s name is Claire. The man Dean’s calling, Bobby, he’s like your uncle, and a better father to you than yours ever was. This is helping, Sam. It’s starting to come back. Please let me keep going.” He cut off Sam’s protest with another kiss, which he came to regret a few minutes later when Dean came back into the room.

“Memories back?” Dean finally managed to get out after a very long, awkward staring session.

“Getting there,” Jimmy said. “I remembered what happened to Castiel. He let me take over to wait for Sam, and then two other angels came. He took back over, there was an argument, one of them mentioned taking Castiel to Naomi, and then… pain. Lots of it. And then remembering nothing. They took Castiel to Naomi, whoever that is. I got the feeling she’s another angel.”


	89. Sam/Chuck: Paint Me

Sam would be the first to acknowledge that his art skills were somewhere between “small child whose parents proudly hang art on the refrigerator” and “lolno”. His husband, on the other hand, was the subject of paintings done by so many great masters and heroes of the art world that Sam had no hope of keeping track.

Therefore, Chuck’s request had Sam sputtering and stammering and in general considering himself very lucky when he managed to get out a coherent “Why?”

“Because. Channel your inner Bob Ross. Put pencil to paper and let’s just see what happens, okay? I want to know how you see me.”

“You know getting me to draw you isn’t going to show you that, right? I cannot draw.”

“Just do it, please?”

Sam sighed and said a quick prayer to Mary for strength to deal with this guy. He could feel the sympathy flooding from heaven as he found a blank piece of paper and started to draw. While he was working, it looked like crap, but when he handed it over, Chuck’s gasp was too awed to be fake. “Sam, this... this is incredible. It’s perfect.”

“What did you do.” Sam looked over. To him, it looked awful. The anatomy was way off, the lines were crooked, it looked nothing like Chuck except in the vague way of having two eyes and a mouth and something that just barely was passable as a nose. “Okay, either you have a very warped sense of art, or we’re looking at something completely different.”

Chuck took Sam’s hand. “See as I do.” He held up the picture...

And now Sam could see it. He could see the love that went into it - not the love of art, but the love of Chuck. Every crooked line, every failure of perspective, didn’t matter. All that mattered was the love.

“Sure, lots of artists have loved their God, but this is different. This is personal. It’s the best artwork of me I’ve ever seen. Thank you, Sam.”


	90. SaRaphael: Tell Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From [chapter 74.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13000356/chapters/37223792)

Geneva was going home. They were down to four. Sam, sitting by Raphael and holding his fake-boyfriend’s hand, couldn’t help the dread settling in his stomach. Their showmance had been designed to get them to this point, make them fan favorites and help them stay alive whether through the fan vote or the production shenanigans to protect the ratings draws. Now, they were supposed to break up and make it everyone for themselves.

The thing was, at some point, the showmance had become real for Sam. He wasn’t worried about the effect on the fans if he admitted it had all been fake, the fans were smart enough to know that showmance was a perfectly good strategy. He was worried about the breakup hurting him for real.

Raphael led him to the room that the two of them were using - it was a family show and cameras were on them 24/7 so they kept their clothes on, but sharing a bed was nice, and both of them were used to it from growing up sharing a bed with a brother. In Sam’s case because his dad got the cheapest rooms he could for the three of them and if Dean and Sam had to share they had to share; Raphael’s family was just so huge that he nearly always ended up sharing a bed with one or more of his siblings or cousins. The other two constestants each had their own room, now, so they could be reasonably sure they wouldn’t be interrupted.

Raphael hugged Sam. “We both survived again. Who do we target next time? I know you like Jess, but she’s going to be tough to beat in challenges to make us the final two. We might be better off keeping Andy.”

“But Andy will be almost impossible to beat in the end, if he’s one of the final two. At least against Jess, whichever of you or I make it stand a chance.”

“But…” Raphael collapsed onto the bed, pulling Sam along with him to lie in his arms. “I can’t do this, Sam. I know we’re supposed to be breaking up, but I can’t.”

“Raph?”

“I know I can’t stop you from doing what you need to, but I can’t break up with you, either. I don’t know when it happened, I didn’t realize it had until just now, but this became real to me. When we leave this house, I’m still going to love you.”

“Oh, thank god.” Sam clung tightly to Raphael. “Me too, Raph. I am so happy to hear you feel it too.”


	91. Sastiel: There’re billions of people on this planet, and I love you. How incredible is that?

Sam knew perfectly well that it drove everyone around him crazy when he got like this, which is why he tried to hide it. He would bury himself in books and research and archiving the Bunker - a never-ending project, as they kept discovering new rooms or new ways of accessing extra-dimensional storage or there were times Sam swore the library was just growing new books.

In his head, Sam knew that the way he felt was bullshit. He’d saved the world more often than he’d doomed it, he cleaned up his messes when he did doom it, he cleaned up after his brother’s messes when it was Dean’s turn, and in between, he saved people. Lots of people alive owed their continued existence personally to Sam Winchester, not just as part of the world he’d saved. If that didn’t make him worth *something*, nothing could.

And yet, he felt worthless. Why was he even alive? He was an annoyance, a constant drag on his brother and his boyfriend, they’d be happier...

“No, we would not,” Castiel interrupted.

“Wha... are you reading my mind?”

“No, just your face. I know that look. Sam, I know you know this, but I think you need to hear it again: Dean and I don’t just like having you around. We both need you around. Without you, we’re both so much less.”

“I know that, but... right now, that seems a little too incredible.”

“You want incredible? There’re billions of people on this planet, and I love you. How incredible is that?” 

“That’s... pretty darn incredible, now that you mention it.” Sam stretched up to where he could meet Castiel’s lips. “Thanks."


	92. Sastiel: Body Swap + Holiday

Sam felt cramped and squished. He couldn’t explain it; he was in bed and while he had a blanket it shouldn’t make him feel claustrophobic. He stretched, feeling it stop shorter than he was used to and yet feel fully stretched. He looked at his arms, and realized. This wasn’t his body. It was Castiel’s.

Which he really hoped meant Cas was in his body, somehow, because he sure wasn’t in this one, and Sam didn’t like the thought of his body wandering around without him in it. Again. At least he wasn’t naked.

“Sam?” The voice was his, but it was wrong. “Are you awake?”

“Yes, but I’m not exactly myself.” Sam sat up and looked critically at his real body. He could see some things in the posture and the stillness of it that made him sure it was Castiel in there. “Which, of course, you know.”

“Yes. This is meant to be a Christmas present for us. I fail to see the relevance or why we’d want this.”

“Who did this?”

“Dean, with help from Crowley.”

Sam groaned. “Dean’s watched one too many porns of people switching bodies and using them for sex. That’s what we’re supposed to get out of it, the chance to...” He trailed off, shaking his head. “He’s an idiot.”

“He... does know we don’t have sex, right?”

Sam shrugged. “I’ve told him. He doesn’t believe me that the reason we don’t is because neither of us wants to.”


	93. Sastiel: College AU + Didn’t Know They Were Dating

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Continuation of [this](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13000356/chapters/40392185).

Dinner with Dean was supposed to be a nice, quiet, stress-free time. Well, there’d be stress in the form of wondering when Dean would bring up Sam going back to hunting. It certainly wouldn’t be quiet at the bar Dean chose. There would likely be a different kind of stress as Sam and Castiel tried to explain to Dean that no, they were not boyfriends.

It wouldn’t be easy, not with Dean talking to their friends, who all refused to believe Sam and Castiel weren’t dating. They’d certainly explained thoroughly and frequently enough that Stanford students really had no excuse for not understanding that they were just two friends who enjoyed physical contact and saw no reason to deny themselves the comfort they drew from sitting close together or frequently being in contact just because other people made assumptions.

They were in a booth at the bar, Sam and Cas on one side of the booth close enough that their legs were touching, Dean on the other side. “So why do you guys deny being together? It’s so obvious to anyone.”

“We’re not, Dean. You’re just seeing what you expect to see. You can’t imagine any other reason why we’re like this.” Sam stared at his beer. “You never would listen when I tried to tell you I wasn’t interested in sex.”

“Yeah, and then we met Renee, and suddenly you were,” Dean said. “Little surprised this time it’s a guy, but hey, probably shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions from one data point.”

Sam squeezed his eyes closed, trying to find the strength to explain this yet again to Dean. Cas’s hand on his leg helped. A lot. He opened his eyes. “Dean, Renee was an exception, not an awakening.”

“You know, your boy here looks a little like her. Same blue eyes, dark hair, something about the nose…”

Now that Dean mentioned it, Sam could see it, but it didn’t matter. “That still doesn’t mean anything. Sex is not something I’m interested in.”

“And I’m the same way,” Castiel jumped in.

“And sure, it might be nice to have a boyfriend, but Stanford’s a lot harder than high school - even knowing I’ll be finishing the quarter in the same place I started it. Between my schoolwork, a job to pay for the things my scholarship doesn’t, and having friends, I just don’t have time for a boyfriend.”

Dean gave them both an unimpressed look. “Okay, Sam, obviously I’m a sex-obsessed idiot, so describe an asexual romantic relationship to me.”

“It’s pretty much the same as a sexual romantic relationship, except they either have their own beds to go to or when they share a bed it’s just to cuddle. Go on dates, buy each other presents, hang out at home, taking an interest in each other’s hobbies, introduce them to your families…”

“Go on dates, like a football game, or a nature hike, or go to a frat party together? You guys do that, those are all things you’ve specifically told me about doing with Cas. Buy each other presents… remind me, where’d you get that T-shirt?”

Sam looked down to remind himself which one he was wearing. It was a purple shirt with a greyhound. “Cas gave it to me after a trip to a dog shelter…” Which now he was curious how Dean knew that, but not the point.

“And you’re constantly bringing him food, so that’s that. Hang out at home, you guys live together, don’t try to tell me you’re not gonna keep living together after this year.”

“Well, yeah, we are. Cas’s family has already arranged an apartment for the two of us so we don’t have to live in the dorms. They’d be thrilled if I didn’t go, most of them hate me for some reason, but they all accept that where I go, Cas will go.” And again, Sam realized too late how that was going to play into making Dean’s point.

“So you’ve met at least some of his family, he’s met the half of yours that’s on speaking terms with you… take an interest in each other’s hobbies, what class are you taking together next quarter?”

“Two philosophy classes. Both for his major, one of which fulfills a gen ed requirement for me and the other counts as an elective toward my major. So?”

“So what, exactly, is the difference between what you guys have and being together? You guys were even sleeping squished into the same tiny dorm bed when I showed up! Well, you were sleeping, Cas was awake.”

Sam had always had an answer for this before. Now, though… where was it? The only thing he could come up with was “We’re not…” But then he realized, even kissing wasn’t a difference. He couldn’t remember the first time one of them had kissed the other, or even say for sure who kissed who first. They hadn’t exactly made out or anything, but when Castiel kissed him goodnight…

“Sam? Are we dating?”

“I sure as heck can’t find any reason to say we aren’t,” Sam admitted. “I know we used to have one when our friends started in on us, but… is this gonna cause problems? With your… thing?”

“I don’t know. I’ll have to check in with Zachariah. I hope not.”


	94. Sastiel: Animal Transformation + Bed Sharing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sequel to [Chapter 64](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13000356/chapters/36277941)

The Bunker was amazing, and it was great to be able to have space to spread out and really dig into his studies like he had at Stanford. Dean occasionally rolled his eyes when he saw Sam getting out six books to spread out over the table, but he certainly wasn’t complaining about how quickly Sam could come up with answers on things after a good study session.

One thing that was different from Stanford was the cat purring in his lap. Catstiel only left Sam’s side when he heard Dean heading to the kitchen. Despite Dean’s grumbling about cats and stinky litter boxes and allergies that had mysteriously stopped bugging him after the first day, he took great pride in coming up with cat food recipes. Part of nesting for Dean took the form of really learning to cook with proper food instead of whatever he could get with the ten dollars John left them for three days that turned into a whole week.

It had taken Sam a while to get used to the idea of having someone sharing his bed, even if it was a cat. Once he got used to it, though, he found he dropped off quicker with Catstiel curled up just beside his pillow purring, and it was easier to get up in the morning when he was well-rested and there was a cat pawing at his face and meowing.

It weirded him out a little when Catstiel started knocking books off shelves. At first, he thought it was because his cat was bored and needed some toys, but then he started looking at the books and noticing a pattern. Every time a book hit the floor through feline action, it was something that had the answer to a question Sam had been thinking about. Suddenly, he had to reassess his cat’s intelligence. Dean refused to believe it, teasing Sam about regaining his old psychic powers and blaming the cat for it, but at least it was teasing and not accusing.

One day, while Sam was researching animal transformations, he noticed that Catstiel was missing. He must have missed Dean starting to cook him some dinner. When Cas wasn’t back an hour later, he started to worry. When Dean brought him some mac ‘n’ cheese, he looked around. “Where’s your stupid cat?”

“I don’t know. I thought he was with you.” Now he was really worried. When Catstiel didn’t show up at bedtime, Sam gave up on trying to sleep after half an hour and went back out to the library. It was probably about time he pulled an all-nighter anyway.

By morning, he was exhausted, so he didn’t question it when he felt a weight in his lap as he sat on the couch. He just reached down to start petting, and sure enough, there was a warm, contented purr.

“What the fuck.”

Sam yawned. “Good morning to you, too, Dean.”

“Dude, first, when did Cas get back and why didn’t you tell me, and second, what the fuck. You’re petting him?”

“Huh...?” Sam looked down, and the innocent blue eyes that blinked up at him were that of Castiel, not Catstiel. Huh. “Hi, Cas, where have you been?”

“Here.” Castiel pulled his head off Sam’s lap and shrunk himself, taking on a more feline shape... and there was Catstiel. He reversed the transformation, complete with returning his head to Sam’s lap. Sam obligingly returned to petting. “I fell afoul of a trap set by one of Malachi’s minions, which turned me into a cat. I discovered how to reverse it reading with you yesterday, Sam. I’m sorry for disappearing, but it took some time to figure out how to complete the countercharm while still retaining the ability to switch.”

“Why would you want to be a cat?” Dean demanded. “Limited vocabulary, no opposable thumbs, having to lick your own butt...”

“One, the angels hunting me aren’t looking for a cat. Two, it was extremely satisfying to leave hairballs in your shoes when you started picking on Sam unnecessarily.” Dean sputtered, but Castiel wasn’t finished. “Three, Sam never pushed me away.”

Sam looked down at Castiel in confusion, but before he could ask when he’d pushed Castiel away before instead of the other way around, Dean spoke up. “Wait, hold up. You spend all day in his lap and you’ve been sleeping in his bed?! DUDE!”

“Dean, come on, it’s not like there was anything weird about it, and I slept better.” Castiel’s purring got louder, causing Sam to smile. “Seems like it was good for both of us.”

“Apparently. I’m sorry reversing the spell took so long and I wasn’t able to help you last night. You should go take a nap.”

“Will you come with me?”

“Of course.” Castiel shifted back to cat form, trotting off toward Sam’s room with his tail held high.


	95. Sastiel: Proposal + Secret Relationship

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sequel to [Chapter 49.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13000356/chapters/35174525)

There was a massive uproar when Castiel’s most recent interview hit the web. Sure, everyone was interested in what he had to say about the new album that would be dropping in the next couple weeks - right up until they hit the midpoint of the article.

Q. Your taste in jewelry has always run more toward the ornate and fanciful. Your new ring hardly seems like it’s your taste, so what’s that about? Was it a gift?

A picture followed the question, showing Castiel’s left hand with two rings - a black and silver skull and crossbones on his index finger, and the ring in question, a plain silver band on his ring finger.

A. Yes, it was. I’m very glad you noticed it, because it gives me a chance to talk about someone very important to me. This ring is exactly what it looks like.

Q. It looks like a wedding ring.

A. Okay, maybe not exactly what it looks like. We’re not married yet. It’s an engagement ring.

Q. You’re engaged?

A. *Castiel doesn’t even try to hide the eyeroll.* No. I’m just wearing an engagement ring for the fun of it.

Q. But...

A. I’m engaged. My fiancé and I have been dating for two years now.

Q. We’ve never seen you with anyone special. Who is she?

A. He’s a florist who helped me hide from a crowd of zealous fans when all I was trying to do was buy a birthday present for my sister. Anna loved the flowers he helped me put together for her, so I went back the next day to place another order as an excuse to leave him my phone number and Discord name. You’ve never seen me with him because we’ve kept our relationship secret so he didn’t have to deal with my less-well-behaved fans or paparazzi.

Q. But now you’re coming out? Both as gay and as engaged?

A. I’ve been out as pansexual for the past six years. The one relationship I’ve had that played out in the media was with a woman, so a lot of people ignore that, but nothing about my sexuality has changed. Sam isn’t the first man I’ve dated, just the first person of any gender I’ve felt like I want to hold on to for the rest of my life.

Q. What makes this Sam so special?

A. Well, for one thing, he’s the kind of person who sees a celebrity, recognizes him, and helps him hide from a crowd of fans instead of joining them. He and his brother are huge fans, but he never once made me feel uncomfortable or like I owed him anything but the money for the flowers I bought. He’s one of the most positive people I’ve ever met, in many ways. His faith in people is incredible, especially considering he had a rather crappy childhood, and the only people I’ve heard him say unkind words about are those who deserve it because they’re assholes who don’t care about the people they hurt or enjoy hurting others... except for one. When I first met Sam, he was incredibly hard on himself for some mistakes he’d made in his past. He’s gotten much better, and I am so proud of him for taking the steps he has to help himself heal. If you want to know more, there’s a bonus track available for download through the website. It’s a huge departure from our usual music that I wrote about him.

Q. When are you going to start showing Sam off?

A. As much as possible, I’m hoping not to, but he’s going to be my date for the Grammys next month. We haven’t set a date for the wedding and don’t plan to do anything too elaborate or public, but I’m sure there will be pictures released.


	96. Jammy: Enamor Me

There had better be a really good reason why someone was throwing rocks at his bedroom window at 2 am. The most likely culprit was Dean pulling some kind of prank or being too drunk to just break in like normal, so Sam was prepared for some truly epic little brothering when he got to the window and threw it open. The words died on his lips when he looked out and saw James Novak, aka the hottest man Sam had ever seen, standing there with a guitar.

It got weirder when James started playing “I Wanna Know What Love Is.” If they were fifteen years younger, Sam would guess frat hazing. As it was, he could not come up with any plausible explanation for why this was happening. He just stood there staring with his mouth hanging open.

When the song was over, Jimmy set down the guitar and dropped to one knee. “But soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It is the east, and Samuel is the sun. Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious moon, who is already...”

“What the fuck.” It didn’t stop Jimmy, who kept reciting Romeo’s soliloquy with minor changes up to the bit about Sam’s eyes making birds think it wasn’t night. “No, seriously. What. The. Hell.”

James got up and reached for the guitar instead of answering. Sam had barely recognized “Love Is on the Way” when he slammed his window shut. He stormed downstairs, not even pausing to grab a shirt before slamming the door and marching over to the source of his headache. “What are you doing here?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” James dropped back to one knee. “Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all.”

“Oh god no. I am not listening to a sonnet.” Sam buried his face in his hands until he felt enough in control of himself to keep demanding answers. “What is this? Truth or Dare night at the tax accountants’ “It’s April 18th” party?”

“You won’t believe that this is exactly what it looks like, I’m in love with you and can’t keep quiet about it anymore?”

“No. I can’t. Do you even know my last name?”

“Winchester, but for some reason you had them put Wesson on the law firm when they made you a partner.” Once again, Sam’s jaw dropped, but he didn’t have a chance to respond before James was continuing. “You went to Stanford on a full-ride scholarship, graduated with high honors, graduated Stanford Law School second in your class, could have had any job you wanted but you chose to come here and work family law, fighting to make sure kids had their best chances. You volunteer at the dog shelter every weekend, you have a complicated relationship with your older brother and no relationship with any other family you might have, you identify as bisexual so even though your past is all girls there’s hope for me, and I just realized I probably sound a bit stalkery but I promise, I don’t know all this from stalking you, I know all this from my ex-wife happening to be your ex-girlfriend who’s been keeping up with you on social media. Amelia?”

Sam had been growing increasingly concerned, but that relaxed him. “Seriously? Wow, small world. Okay then. So if you know so much about me... why the hell are you waking me up at 2 am to declare your love when I have court in the morning?!”

“Court’s cancelled. The judge was in a car wreck and will be unable to perform her duties by tomorrow, and the person they usually bring in as an emergency substitute is already covering for another judge who’s on vacation in Aruba. That one I know because Amelia and I were due in court to finalize custody arrangements for our daughter and they notified me that they’d contact me when they knew when we could reschedule.”


	97. Jammy: Wed Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sequel to previous chapter.

Sam should’ve known something was up when he got home and Claire wasn’t anywhere to be found. She wasn’t due to go to her mother’s until the next day. Jimmy hated missing time with his daughter, although he certainly couldn’t argue that Amelia shouldn’t get to see her. For Claire to be gone a day early was just plain odd.

The plinking of rocks against the living room window had Sam growing suspicious. He looked outside, and sure enough, Jimmy was standing there with his guitar. As soon as Sam got the window open, he started playing “Keep On Loving You.”

“So I’m a snake?” Sam shouted out the window when the song was over.

“Well, you are a lawyer!” Jimmy shouted back. He dropped to one knee.

_Let me not to the marriage of true minds_   
_Admit impediments. Love is not love_   
_Which alters when it alteration finds,_   
_Or bends with the remover to remove._

Sam was just about to shout another jeer out the window when he saw a flash of something sparkly. He looked closer, and his eyes welled up with tears. Jimmy was holding out a box containing a diamond ring. He looked down at the ground. Screw it, he’d survived worse.

Jimmy hadn’t expected that. He was therefore unable to stop Sam from stealing the guitar. Sam hadn’t been playing very long, and Dean was probably never going to forgive him for playing Journey, but “Faithfully” seemed like the most appropriate answer to the implied question.


	98. Dean & Sam & Jack: Sequel to Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Chapter 20.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13000356/chapters/30793671)

Walking through the halls of the bunker should be easy. Even walking past Sam’s room was supposed to be routine. Cas was supposed to join Sam and Jack for an educational Netflix and chill session – yes, he’d told Castiel he was using the term wrong, but Castiel kept using it anyway. At least with Jack involved, Dean could be sure the term was being misused. If it were just Cas and Sam… Dean would be spending as much time in the garage as he could. Cas kept either forgetting or screwing up the noise-cancelling wards, and Sam got loud.

Dean could have used noise-cancelling wards as he and Cas approached, because he did not need to hear Sam telling Jack that Dean had threatened to kill Sam once. He’d never done that, so what the hell was wrong with Sam? Sure, he’d been pissed about Sam running off with Ruby, but he’d said they were still brothers and while he owed Sam a hell of a beatdown, he wanted to make things right between them. Not that he wanted to kill Sam. But Sam didn’t sound like he was lying. He sounded… defeated. Resigned. It didn’t have the note of desperation Sam had in the church when Dean convinced him to stop the trials, but the resignation and acceptance were there.

He turned to Castiel, who didn’t look nearly as surprised as he should have. “What the hell, Cas? I never said that. You know I never said that, you were listening. The only time I’ve ever wanted to kill Sam was when I was a demon, and you know as well as I do that Sam refuses to hold that one against me. He should, but he won’t. So… what the hell?”

“Sam never got your voice mail. He heard something very different, what you heard him tell Jack. He wouldn’t bring it up with you, at first because he was afraid that reminding you about it would end with you deciding to go through with it, and then because it was in the past and what good could come out of dragging it up?” Castiel glared at Dean. “It’s not the only time you’ve driven him to believe that you wanted him dead. You might want to consider your words and actions a little more carefully so that next time someone like Zachariah tries something like that, there’s a snowball’s chance it won’t work.”

Dean considered that for about half a second, and then he stomped into Sam’s room. “I never said that, Sammy. Zachariah fucked it up. Don’t you ever, ever believe I want you dead, or that I’d kill you.” He turned to Jack. “You, I meant it, I would have killed you if you went bad, but you’ve convinced me. You’re way better than your grace donor would’ve ever let you be. You’re family now, which means I don’t want you dead and I’m not gonna kill you.”

“Um… thanks?” Jack scooted closer to Sam.

Sam glared at Dean, lips pressed firmly together. “You keep saying that, and yet, we keep ending up with you needing to. Can you try maybe following Extreme’s advice? More than words?”

This was not the reaction Dean expected. “Thought you hated that song.”

“Yeah, doesn’t mean it’s wrong about your words being meaningless if they’re not backed up by actions, especially from you now.”

Dean crossed his arms. “What the hell does that mean?”

“It means ‘the best part of apologies is that you don’t have to mean them’. Remember that?”

“Oh.” Dean had known he’d regret saying that, but why now? “C’mon, man, I was just saying whatever I could say to get Lucifer and Chuck working together. I didn’t mean it.”

“And that’s a problem, Dean, you’re always saying things you think need to be said so that we can get the job done, and ignoring the consequences until they smack you in the face! I put up with that, because that’s how it’s always been, but I am not gonna stand by and let you treat my son that way. Jack deserves better.”

Well. That explained it. Sam had really taken to the idea that Jack was his son. “Fair enough. Jack, I’m not sorry I said what I said, but I am sorry I never let you know you’d proven yourself.”


	99. SaMichael: Washing their back/hair in the shower.

The water running over his body felt nice, even though it was fruitless. It could wash the dirt and sweat and grime off his body, but it could never make him clean, no matter how hot and how long he stood under it. Nothing could make him clean.

“Stop that.”

Sam’s head jerked up at the sound of the voice. “Michael? Are you reading my mind or something?”

“No, you just have that look. Dean told me one of the demons you were hunting this trip brought up that boy king bullshit, and I know how it affects you any time you’re reminded of the lies my idiot brother fed his demons about you.” Michael stepped into the shower. “You have figured out that they were lies, don’t you? To convince the demons that you were worth following, so that when Lucifer took you as a vessel, they wouldn’t have trouble adjusting to taking orders from someone who looked like a hunter?”

“Huh.” Sam ducked his head, but he had a sheepish smile. “I try to avoid thinking about it as much as possible, so no, I hadn’t actually made that connection. Doesn’t change...”

“Sam, you’re not unclean. Not because of what Azazel did to you, not because of what you were doing with Ruby, not for having allowed Lucifer to use you while you tried to take back control, not for any of the things he did to you afterward.” Michael reached up and gently pulled Sam’s head back, rubbing shampoo into Sam’s hair. “You’re not unclean, Sam. If you were, you know I wouldn’t be here with you.”

“I know. I know that, and it’s kind of frustrating that I can’t get this voice in my head to shut up and stop telling me lies.” Sam closed his eyes, letting himself focus entirely on Michael’s hands moving through his hair to wash it clean. It got even better when he could feel the tingle of grace on his scalp, allowing him to relax and fully let go of the demon’s taunts.


	100. Sam/Chuck: Giving them a back massage when they flop on the couch or bed.

He being Him, he could easily remove the stress and soreness from Sam’s back much more efficiently, but where was the fun in that? Sam so rarely had a chance to let go and just enjoy himself in a perfect moment, and while it took a bit to get him there, that’s where he was right now.

Sam had flopped on the bed in exhaustion after a long day of hauling boxes of books, working on updating the library with copies of books the British Men of Letter had, an apology gift from Mick after Toni Bevell got hold of him. Sam certainly wasn’t old by any stretch of the imagination, but he’d had a hard life, and his back was starting to let him know about it.

Okay, so Chuck was maybe doing something about that, rejuvenating the bone and ligaments and wondering again how anyone believed that a divine Creator couldn’t come up with something better than this bullshit for the human back. It wasn’t that much, and it wasn’t the traditional single-touch-and-it’s-done. He was taking his time, giving Sam a full deep tissue massage.

After some token protests that he was fine, really, he didn’t need Chuck to drop what he was doing, Sam relaxed and accepted that no, in Chuck’s opinion, he really didn’t have anything better to do right now than take care of Sam’s back, Sam stretched out properly and just let Chuck work, making some very happy noises when Chuck found and worked out the knots.


	101. Sastiel: Mending an item of their clothing that was ripped.

Growing up with John Winchester, Drill Sergeant, led Sam to develop many skills. Shooting. Running. Gravedigging. Research. Identifying monsters based on the tiniest differences between them. First aid. Identity theft. Credit card fraud. Shopping on a tight budget.

And yet, mending clothes never ended up among them, even though getting a sewing kit would be a lot cheaper than replacing every torn flannel shirt or pair of jeans. For him and Dean, it made some sense - growing boys needed new clothes frequently anyway. For John, who wasn’t growing, mending clothes would have been useful.

Jess taught Sam to mend clothes at school. She’d learned from her mother, and although replacing damaged clothes had never been a financial issue for her family, she just enjoyed taking care of her things and fixing what got broken. Their friends at school teased her for falling in love with Sam. He didn’t talk about why, but everyone knew he’d been broken before he got to Stanford.

When Sam found Castiel’s trench coat thrown away with a sleeve torn off, he glared at it. Ridiculous, probably, but he loved that coat almost as much as he loved Castiel. Upon examination, it looked like the hardest part of fixing it would be keeping Dean from discovering it and teasing him about being Castiel’s good little 50s housewife.

When it was done, Sam put it on his pillow. Castiel would find it when he came in to watch NetFlix.

 

(Surprisingly, no NetFlix got watched that evening. Castiel was too busy thanking Sam.)


	102. Sastiel: Huddling for Warmth + Magical Accident

Castiel shivered as he woke up. Something seemed wrong, and he couldn’t quite place what it was. He was cold, but that was expected – he’d been caught in a storm the night before, and while he’d gotten himself and his dog to a shallow cave, he hadn’t been able to get a fire going. At least his dog had settled in between him and the wind, so he had the furry…

It dawned on Castiel what was wrong. Yes, there was still something warm cuddled up to him, but he wasn’t furry. He was human, and he was naked, and what the hell was going on. Where was his dog? He reached out and shook the man’s shoulder.

After a long yawn, the man pushed himself to sit, leaning forward with his hands on the ground. “Mas… huh?” He tilted his head, shaking his entire body. Castiel made the mistake of glancing down and nearly combusted from embarrassment. “Master?”

There were very few possible explanations. One, Castiel had woken up in some bizarre parallel universe where slavery was still legal and Castiel owned one. Two, he’d ended up being rich enough to hire people to follow him around and call him master. Three, he’d somehow ended up getting into a kinky master/slave roleplay and forgotten all about it. And four… “Sam?”

Sam jumped to his feet, stumbling as he found himself on only two. “Master! Ready to go?”

“Um.” So it was, in fact, four. Or one hell of a coincidence, but now that Castiel could bring himself to look his… follower… in the eyes, he was certainly leaning towards number four. “Sam, what happened? Why are you human?”

“I don’t know! Isn’t it great? I can talk! I can tell you how much I love you for being such a good master!” Sam jumped at Castiel, licking his face. Castiel had no chance to recover or try to explain before Sam turned and growled at the entrance to the cave. “I can tell you that someone’s sneaking up on us instead of just growling and hoping you figure it out.”

Castiel reached for his gun, checking to make sure it was loaded, and then moved to the mouth of the cave. “Who’s there?”

A red-haired woman stepped out, hands up. “I’m unarmed,” she called in a Scottish accent. “I’m not here to hurt you. I’m hoping to be here to solve your problem.”

“What problem?”

“Do you happen to have a pet who woke up a wee different this morning?”

“Yes! I did!” Sam bounced out of the cave, running up to the woman to sniff at her. Castiel tried not to laugh as she both quite obviously admired the view and recoiled from the giant naked man running at her. “Thank you thank you thank you this is great!”

“I see.” She came closer. “I do apologize. I’ve recently acquired a new hamster and I was attempting to bond her as my familiar, which would give her shapeshifting powers, allow her to take human form. Unfortunately, my dear son decided to pop by without warning, and the spell went a bit awry. It seems to have hit your… dog?”

“So my dog is your familiar now?" The thought was... upsetting, to say the least. Castiel's stomach lurched with fear at losing his dog.

Sam didn't like it any better than Castiel. “NO!” Sam ran back, putting himself in front of his master. “You’re not taking me from him!”

The witch fought the smile blooming on her face. “It would seem not. I suspect his devotion to you redirected the intended bond, as well.”

“But… I’m not a witch. I don’t know what to do with a familiar.”

“Well, we have a couple options here, dearie. You can come to my home, I can break the bond, and you can have your normal dog back. It seems a waste of a perfectly good man, but the choice is yours.” Castiel glanced at Sam as he tensed, turning to look at his master with puppy eyes that lost not one bit of effectiveness for being in a human face. “Or I can give you the crash course on handling a familiar and you can go home and enjoy a much different relationship with your new familiar.”

“Um…” Castiel looked at Sam, who was still staring at him with those sad eyes. “Just how human is he?”

“The longer he spends in human form, the more human he’ll learn to act. Give it a month or two spending at least half his time human, and a stranger would never know he wasn’t.” She winked at Castiel. “Once he’s adjusted, he’s just as much human as dog now.”

“Hmm.” Castiel reached out and started petting Sam’s hair. “All right…”

“Rowena,” the witch supplied.

“Rowena. Teach me. He’s so happy this happened, I can’t take it away from him.”


	103. Wincestiel: Accidental Eavesdropping + Bed Sharing

“Dean, we need to talk.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” Dean propped himself up on an elbow, letting his eyes roam over the naked angel sitting on the edge of his bed. “How much longer are we gonna let this go on?”

Castiel shrugged. “The only reason I’m letting it go on at all is that I can’t figure out how to bring it up with Sam without him running away. You’ve known Sam longer, what do we do?”

Dean shook his head. “I dunno, man, if I knew I wouldn’t be in here. I’d be out there doing it. Really don’t know which of us it’d be worse coming from.”

“Given his feelings, I can’t imagine him having a problem with yours.” Castiel sighed. “With me, he still thinks of me as an angel, and therefore something so far beyond his reach he’d never believe it if I spoke up. If I reached out for him.”

“Yeah, I know,” Dean said. “I was really hoping he’d pick up on something, at least show some curiosity, when we bought this gigantic bed to replace the one that was in here. Now what, I walk out there and say ‘hey Sammy, Cas and I agree that our bed’s missing something, it’s you, come get in here with us?’“

 

Sam had thought he’d found and destroyed all the bugs the British Men of Letters had set up in the compound. Apparently, they’d missed one, as the sounds of Dean and Castiel sleeping together were now playing in tinny mono coming from a speaker hidden in a bookshelf. Sam weighed his options - leave, destroy the speaker, listen in, or go tell them they were being broadcasted. As much as he felt he really should do the last one, who knew who else might be listening in, he didn’t. He chose to listen in. It was the closest he’d ever get to being with either of them. Which was fine, they belonged together, they were happy, that’s what was always most important to Sam, but he couldn’t help feeling a little jealous.

Then he heard his name. Let what go on? They couldn’t figure out how to talk to him about it... did they want him to leave? Let the two of them have the Bunker to themselves? It didn’t make any sense, but what other answer was there?  
Then Dean said something about them wanting Sam to come join them in their giant bed. He had wondered what they needed all that space for - Dean was a cuddler, Castiel didn’t even sleep, why did they need a bed big enough for three fully grown men? The question was, did Dean mean it like it sounded, or did they just want him to come share the bed for some other reason? It was no secret that ever since the British Men of Letters had invaded, Sam hadn’t been sleeping well, his room no longer feeling like a sanctuary to him. That made sense - they didn’t want to let him go on sleeping poorly, but didn’t know how to bring it up without it being misconstrued as wanting him there full time.

...But then what was that about Dean’s feelings?

There was only one way to get answers. He’d have to go admit he’d been eavesdropping and just ask. He grabbed the speaker and headed down.

 

Of course they were still naked. Why Sam hadn’t thought of that... but too late, now, he’d already knocked and been told to come in. He ducked his head, hoping his hair would hide the blush. “We missed a Men of Letters bug, somewhere in here.” He held up the speaker that had echoed his words. “I, uh... I heard your conversation.”

“Oh thank fuck,” Dean said. “So you coming in, or...?”

“I heard your conversation, but I’m really not...” Sam trailed off and tried again. “What exactly is it you want? You guys both know, so you didn’t spell it out.”

“We want you to get your clothes off and get in here so we can get you off,” Dean said, causing Sam to let out a surprised meep. “Last time you got laid was what, Amelia?”

“Dean, he thought we were dead, let it go,” Castiel admonished. He stood up, searching the room for the bug.

“No, I’m just saying, since then you haven’t, have you?”

“I wasn’t having sex with Amelia, either. The last time I had sex involving both my body and my soul was freaking Ruby.” That was the easy part. “You... you both... you want to have sex with me.”

“Yes, Sam, we do. But that’s not all we want. We want you to be a full part of all of this, not just the sex.” Castiel reached under the bedframe and pulled out the bug. “I found this. If anyone else is listening, fuck you all.” Castiel crushed the bug in his hand. “You have as much time as you’d like to consider, but I hope you won’t wait too long.”

“Kinda already have, don’t you think?” Dean muttered.

Castiel shot a glare at Dean, but Sam just grinned. “No, he’s got a point, Cas. I don’t know how long you two have felt this way, but there’s been some wasted time. Let’s stop that, huh?”


End file.
